Thunderbird - the new external data bus.

So the cat's out of the bag and the new Macs are the first with Lightpeak renamed Thunderbolt

http://www.apple.com/uk/thunderbolt/

http://www.intel.com/technology/io/thunderbolt/index.htm

What other computers and peripherals are just around the corner?

Are there any Thunderbolt DACs on the horizon?

Edit:

A thread has already started here

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Who-will-be-first-use-Apples-Thunderbolt-interface

 

It is a long way down the road before we see any products with this interface. Certainly too soon to be making purchasing decisions based on that press release. Right now I can see its use rationed like FireWire, still leaving USB as the interface of choice because of its universal application.

 

Hmmm, usb isn't universal. It's a master-slave system, limited to the constraints of the usb bus.

Light peak is however universal since it will daisy-chain any type of device at very fast speeds.

I reckon it will rapidly overtake usb for important peripherals, but usb will be around a long time at the low spec end of things.

JC

 

Provided Light peak is not expensive to implement, won't it depend on the market push as much as any technical issues? I can see advantages for manufacturers if there is only one way to string stuff together, and advantages for the user.

The biggest problem, of course is commercial and engineering inertia, but it didn't take USB long to displace parallel printer ports and PS2 keyboards and mice.

 

The Mac design on this one is just stupid. It looks like the socket to connect the power charger with that electric symbol!!

 

Universal as in virtually every personal computor device comes with it, and almost all peripherals use it. As for important peripherals, anything with a user friendly plug and play interface like USB may be popular, but it won't be important. The really important applications still use ISA, PCI and laterly PCI Express with proper fixable interfaces. Physical security is still the first consideration.