In the flurry of commentary about Apple’s release of its long-awaited update of the MacBook Pro, along with talk of new graphics and the FaceTime HD camera is word of a next-generation data transmission technology, known as Thunderbolt. The new port comes with a lighting-bolt icon, providing data speeds of up to 10 Gbps.
The first hint of use for the fast-lane built by Intel and Apple is the FaceTime HD camera, offering 720p video chats and triple the resolution of previous MacBook Pro cameras. However, there could be more uses for Thunderbolt.
Thunderbolt permits high-speed RAID devices to connect to the MacBook. Also, GigaBit ethernet along with more consumer-facing Firewire and USB devices can also attach, according to reports Thursday.
As for that new FaceTime HD camera, the new Thunderbolt technology is reportedly fast enough to download a full-length HD movie in under 30 seconds or slurp down a year’s worth of MP3 recordings in just more than 10 minutes.
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
15 responses to “Light Peak (Thunderbolt) Connects MacBook Pros to Next-Gen Devices”
EPIC. this is the reason why we chose macs, fuck windows, this is where its at.
Remember that patent about MagSafe + LightPeak connector? It featured a 5-pin connector. My MacBook has a 4-pin MagSafe connector. The MagSafe connector on the picture has a 5-pin connector. What it gives? Are my hopes for this patent being a reality too high?
In other words, there is nothing made right now that will connect to this port. And probably won’t be for several years, and by that time this machine will be totally obsolete. Right?
Can you use handbrake installed on the new MacBook to download movies just as fast or will you have to connect a device to Thuderbolt to download the movie.
Here is an idea that you cultofmac guys can investigate: What are the chances that iPad2 (or iPad3) could have a thunderbolt port for power+sync+videoOut all in one small and neat port? What is the cost of the intel part to make that happen. You could just plug a cinema display in and videoOut. You could even access an external disk or the Mac’s disk. Tell is and the rest of the world if it could make sense.
Intel and Apple are saying third parties are bringing devices this spring. So, several months, not years.
Interesting and useful post
I wonder when companies like AVID, RME, MOTU will follow with Thunderblot in their new I/O devices.