“Intel at its Thunderbolt preview event in San Francisco on Thursday said that Apple effectively had the technology to itself for the next year,” Electronista reports. “The 10Gbps spec wasn’t exclusive to Apple, but the semiconductor firm didn’t expect other computer builders to have it until early 2012. It was up to them to decide when to leap in, Intel said.”
“Other companies won’t get the developer kit for Thunderbolt until the spring, giving Apple at least several months’ lead time. Hardware specifications will be tied to the kit and won’t be published publicly, Intel said,” Electronista reports. “Only Intel makes the needed controller chip.”
Electronista reports, “Intel took the opportunity to show Thunderbolt in action, streaming four 1080p, 10-bit encoded videos from a prototype Promise RAID drive attached to a MacBook Pro. The technique also showed very fast Final Cut Pro rendering while daisy-chained with the Promise drive, a prototype LaCie drive and a Cinema Display.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Johnny Bravo” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Take: Apple leads. The rest of the tech world follows at a distance. As always.
> It was up to them to decide when to leap in…
Apple is never afraid to “take a leap” in new tech, when the risk is well worth the potential benefit. It helps when you have control over your platform’s hardware.
Doesn’t Apple have at least a year-long headstart on everything it does?
Remember when the iPhone was introduced, and so many pundits said that it was dumb for Apple to announce 6 months ahead of release, because it would give the other companies time to copy it?
…and here we are now, 4 years later. I think it’s safe to say, yes, at least a year. More like 5.
When iPhone was first released, if we recall, Jobs stated it was five years ahead of everything out there …… and now almost five years later, they are still playing catch-up …. Nobody does R&D like Apple …. Nobody.
Hmm, not sure if this is good or not. I would think that Apple and Intel would want this new port to become quickly adopted and standardized.
Hopefully it will leapfrog USB 3. But then again, doesn’t Intel own USB as well?
“Hmm, not sure if this is good or not…”
That’s why you’re a Synth.
How do you think HTC feels, since they have a new phone coming out called “thunderbolt”
This is a BAD thing!
It means that there are no peripherals available because no large hardware company would put Thunderbolt in their product if only the latest Macs can use it. On top of that, the only adapters available will be from Apple.
For technologies like this, its best when everyone is on board from the start.
Umm…
http://www.9to5mac.com/53800/first-thunderbolt-products-already-available-from-lacie-and-others#more-53800
Apple has been doing this forever. They take new technology and put it on their computers. They go first, way before anyone else. They put USB on iMacs before anyone else had USB. Hardware makers started making USB printers and scanners. PC makers slowly joined in. Apple put FireWire on their Macs first, before ANY hardware would work with it. Very soon, MiniDV camcorders appeared, as well as external hard disks, pro audio hardware and other stuff.
Anyone who has been watching Apple for some time has seen this before. The method works extremely well.
If I remember correct, PC makers had USB ports, long before Apple. However, there were no USB peripherals. The ports took up space on PC box for one possible two years before Apple implemented USB ports on iMac and provided USB keyboard and mice. Then the peripherals started to come out.
dude, look up the date of the imacs. Then look up the date on USB. Your sense of history is warped. Love Apple, but they did not by any means lead with USB.
Firewire is a different story. Niche appeal.
DVI display ports another story. Terrible decision.
Displayport another story. 99% of projectors still on VGA.
So leading is nice and all, but there is a network challenge to any new standard.
Yeah, Apple did not lead with the implementation of USB, where Apple led was being the first to include USB exclusively, with a standard USB keyboard/mouse.
…at the same moment they killed the floppy dead, no less!
Apple is not afraid to murder the past, that’s what makes them agile, and what pisses off some of their partners, but there you are. Apple puts customers before partners.
Microsoft invented USB. Apple adopted USB because the rest of the industry was moving to USB.
Also Promise Technology
http://www.promise.com/default.aspx?region=en-global&m=72
USB 1.0 was available to the industry for some time BEFORE Apple standardized on it. Intel tried but was unsuccessful in getting the industry to adopt USB. It was only after Apple standardized on USB that peripheral makers jumped on board.
Given the industry’s reaction when Apple standardized on USB, and how much larger, more influential Apple is today, I’d be shocked if the peripheral industry isn’t already making versions of their products ready for Thunderbolt.
Thunderbolt is compatible with all types of connections, HDMI, DVI, USB, Firewire, etc. All you need is an adapter for your device and it plugs right into Thunderbolt.
Hey wait just a minute….. From 1994 on PC magazine said This is the year USB will make it big and go mainstream.
FINALLY, in 1998, when Apple introduced the iMac usb products came out of the woodwork because a manufacture (with 2% market share BTW) finally made a move to implement a new technology.
The year long headstart that Apple has is only doing a favor to the other slackards who were too spinless to put it on their logic boards. Apples headstart will benefit end users on all/any platform by guaranteeing their will be plenty of products available in 2013 when the other manufactures finally get off their collective lazy butts and use Thunderbolt
So now the haters know why Apple and Intel still hang out with each other.
I thought the story was Apple spec’d this to Intel back in 2007.
Apple pretty much did make this but they needed Intel to make the chip for it and if it comes from Intel it’s more likely to get adopted.
What sort of idiocy is this? There’s no sense in denying the technology to other players in the tech industry; not if your prime objective is to drive device adoption.
That’s just nuts. It’s like trying to organise a Superbowl competition with just the coaches turning up. Who would want to pay to watch a game where Apple was flinging a ball around to itself.
Light Peak (AKA Thunderbolt in CU) wasn’t DENIED to other manufacturers. Other manufacturers CHOOSE not to participate in the program which has been going on since 2007 and publicly announced in 2009.
“Other companies won’t get the developer kit for Thunderbolt until the spring, giving Apple at least several months’ lead time. Hardware specifications will be tied to the kit and won’t be published publicly, Intel said,” Electronista reports. “Only Intel makes the needed controller chip.”
Looks like denial to me if you withhold key technical specification and development guidelines from the rest of the industry players or prevent reasonable access to design data.
“won’t be published publicly”
I think that only means the companies who want to implement the technology have to agree to Intel & Apple’s terms, before they get the specs.
Apple “effectively” has it the headstart because they helped develop the technology. From Wikipedia: “Thunderbolt (previously Light Peak) is a proprietary interface designed by Intel in collaboration with Apple Inc. (which, among other things, provided engineering for physical outlet, making Thunderbolt backwards compatible with Mini Display Port, previously submitted by Apple) to connect devices in a peripheral bus. “
No one denied anything to anyone- you might consider calling yourself Balmer’s brain…
When you are sitting on $50+ billion dollars you can do whatever you want.
Predrag is on the money here. But I wonder if Apple co funded the development or will provide feedback to intel as reward for a head start. I can’t see intel doing a denial deal with Apple without those kind of conditions in place.
Funny, Engadget says just the opposite. Apple doesn’t have an exclusive at all. Just the advantage of being first implementor.
Is the name Thunderbolt an Intel or Apple copyright?
Will other companies call it Light Peak?
I do like Thunderbolt better. Hopefully we won’t have another name confusion thing like we did with Airport/WiFi or FireWire/IEEE 1394.
@Synth,
HOPEFULLY it will leapfrog USB 3?
It is called Thunderbolt for now because LightPeak would imply optical cables. Lacie and Promise already have compliant HD for TB. iPad2 will likely have a TB port as well as iPhone 5.
Many others will jump on the TB peripheral bandwagon pronto.
Now we know why Apple has been slow in implementing USB 3 and HDMI.
Goodbye USB 3. We hardly knew you.
Well, not really, we will be able to use our Thunderbolt port to take advantage of USB 3 devises. (with converter cable)
Not that I’m looking for one, but if I have to use one, it would be faster than plugging it into my USB 2 port.
“Only Intel makes the needed controller chip.”
Which give Intel entry into fiber optical networks ( or the backbone of all cables) thus reducing costs of new re boosters look good.
And make your costs of internet use cheaper per month in the future!
Oh and Jobs changes his black skive for a football sweater with a thunderbolt on it found in the basement of his destroyed home!
Let’s hope the peripherals show up in stores sooner than later. Since PCI Express is part of the Thunderbolt standard, I wonder if it will be possible to buy external graphics hardware to boost the performance of those Macs relying on Intel’s GPU.
Well this is cool. So here’s hoping the soon-to-be-due-for-a-rev iMac sports the ports too. Not much point hoping for eSATA now. If Intel can really push this to market with the right peripheral makers it’ll be a much better choice, and as I’m in the market for a RAID I’ll be watching that.
You can buy a Promise RAID 4 bay or 6 bay system with TB right now…called Pegasus 🙂
I see no reason why you can’t use Thunderbolt to take advantage of your eSATA hard drives.
That’s what I’m wondering. Does a simple adapter make Thunderbolt into anything you want? Can you just buy an eSATA raid and plug it right in to TB? If so, that’s pretty cool for the near-term.
How long can Thunderbolt cables be? No one has covered this.
3 metres maximum for the copper version of the cables.
The best bet is for cable adaptors to be released. At least then existing devices can take advantage of the i/o port.
Hopefully they will be out sooner than the time it will take to make peripherals.
Apple drove USB acceptance but we should all remember it was a while before compatible devices were mainstream.
2011 will be wonderfull year for Apple users:
Thunderbolt I/O – unveiled
Mac OSX Lion – almost ready
Final Cut Studio 3 – nothing stops Apple to launch this baby
Hope there will be PCI Thunderbolt card for 2010 Mac Pro’s….