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Pretty amazing Thunderbolt demo.
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[Frank Gothmann] “Pile them up and you have a “tower”, both in size and weight.”
Not quite. They can all be used with portable devices and they certainly do not weigh 40 lbs. That you can move any of these from computer to computer, even desktop to desktop (if/when MacPros are updated/replaced) will be a major increase in flexibility. Imagine being able to move Video I/O from computer as needed rather than having to buy cards for every single workstation. For some facilities this is going to be a cost savings.
While the need for workstations may still be there, that every workstation needs to be equipped with everything is inefficient for many facilities. That all this can now be assigned to specific machines as needed both in house and on location, is going to be a major step forward.
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[Walter Soyka] “Others need massive compute power — doable with a “24 sizzle core beast.” (Jeremy, this is my new favorite expression!)”
I agree. Whatever my next workstation is–be it Mac Pro, Z800, or Dell–it will be known officially to the network as “24 sizzle core beast.”
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[Paul Jay] ” Im tired of the ‘Apple doesnt care about pro’ whining.
You think they created thunderbolt for office and iphoto users?
Please use your brain.”Okay, I’ll use my brain.
ThunderBolt is a single port that can do everything from drive a display to plug into fast, external storage to connect to b’cast quality I/O devices. Apple killed legacy ports with the USB-centric iMacs years ago and also jumped between FW and USB connectors on the iPod before finally deciding on the ‘catch all’ 30-pin port that is now on all their iDevices.
Given the desire for clean lines and simplicity I’m sure there are mock-ups of devices at Apple that don’t have anything but USB 2 and ThB ports.
2.9 GHz 8-core (4,1), FCP 7.0.3, 10.6.6
Blackmagic Multibridge Eclipse (7.9.5) -
[Jeremy Garchow] “Is was a bit premature, but HP was thinking about spinning off their desktop line last year.”
The guy who said that was almost immediately fired. For other reasons, yes, but the timing couldn’t possibly have been coincidental.
The new CEO immediately said, “We’ll evaluate,” which is code for “I’m sure he was on crack, but I should probably learn my secretary’s name and where the bathrooms are first,” and took a couple of weeks to say, “Yep, he was on crack. We’re a computer company. We make computers.”
Not to say that it will never happen, but “HP” may or may not have been thinking about going strictly cloud, but HP put a bullet in the head of the guy who actually said it out loud. The moral of the story is that HP is NOT thinking about it any time soon. The new boss is NOT the same as the old boss.
I guarantee that Apple will drop Mac Pros before HP drops workstations…and I’m not thinking Apple is in a hurry to drop Mac Pros…
So if you’re going to say that “HP thought about it,” you have to add, “…and then immediately double-tapped the guy behind the ear.”
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[Jeremy Garchow] “Hmm. I thought the new sandy/ivy Bridge Over River Kwai (or whatever) desktop chips are the only desktop class TBolt procs. I understand i7s are in some pc desktops, but I’m talking the bigger, more robust, power crunch egg fryers.
If there’s a 1 year apple exclusive, it must be over soon. It’s going to be fun!”
You could be right. I haven’t paid super close attention to it. I know that there is ThB controller chip that has to be on the MoBo itself which is why, AFAIK, ThB can’t be added via a PCIe card to an existing machine. From what I’ve read I thought the lack of ThB in towers was just because Apple didn’t want to release new MP’s until they could put the new intel chips in them (which have been delayed). There could certainly be a tech reason behind it as well. I guess in the end it doesn’t matter as Apple is holding off on new MPs until the new intel CPUs are out.
The one year of exclusivity has ended and some PC makers are saying they’ll have ThB machines out by spring. Since it’s an intel pioneered tech I think it will have a much broader adoption rate than FW.
2.9 GHz 8-core (4,1), FCP 7.0.3, 10.6.6
Blackmagic Multibridge Eclipse (7.9.5) -
[Andrew Kimery] “Since it’s an intel pioneered tech I think it will have a much broader adoption rate than FW.”
I completely agree.
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[Walter Soyka] “This is really, really speculative. I’d argue that suggesting that Thunderbolt will be capable of this kind of expansion is very premature.”
[Jeremy Garchow] “But of course. I mentioned that.”
Fair — I just thought it was important to re-emphasize given the ferocity of the Thunderbolt hype cycle.
Thunderbolt is very cool and full of promise, but it’s not a technical revolution per se.
Thunderbolt is a couple of existing technologies bundled together in a very convenient package. Thunderbolt isn’t allowing for any new workflows or technical capabilities — it’s just opening up what’s already possible to a whole new set of machines. You could have run the same demo from the MacBook Air on a low-power, mid-size PC tower with PCIe expansion from a few years ago — and somehow I don’t think we all would have been giddy about that on a technical level.
In other words, we can’t do anything with Thunderbolt that we couldn’t do before — but we can do it cheaper and on significantly smaller or more portable machines.
I’m not saying that Thunderbolt adds no value or isn’t a big advancement. I agree that it will change the way many of us work, because we no longer require a workstation to meet high throughput requirements.
I’m just saying that the speculation about Thunderbolt solving all sorts of problems it was never designed to solve (like adding CPUs as several posters have mentioned at one time or another) is unfounded. A MacBook Air plus Thunderbolt plus a dozen peripherals does not a Mac Pro make.
[Jeremy Garchow] “Here’s to the future.”
We truly live in interesting times. I can’t wait to see what comes next!
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events -
Walter,
Great information, as per usual. Thanks.
While Thunderbolt may not be able to “double your CPU”, I am intrigued by GPU additions (as per my previous post) which may “increase power” (in scare quotes) for certain purposes.
Franz.
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[Walter Soyka] “In other words, we can’t do anything with Thunderbolt that we couldn’t do before — but we can do it cheaper and on significantly smaller or more portable machines.”
Precisely. We could also email and browse the web on laptops, but as soon as we were able to take that capability and carry it around in our pocket…
[Walter Soyka] “A MacBook Air plus Thunderbolt plus a dozen peripherals does not a Mac Pro make.”
You mean a 24 sizzle core beast, I’m sure.
That’s not the point, though. The point of this demo is that a year ago, you could not do what he is trying to do without some serious computing hardware with a lot of physical heft and a mini van. In my mind, that’s an accomplishment. Also, I can share that Red Rocket card around so I don’t have to buy three of them for each machine, or I don’t have to constantly rip it in/out of one machine to the next. I can also connect storage to a laptop, an iMac, and a theoretical TB equipped desktop with no speed penalty or separate PCI card for each machine. Sure the data handling capabilities have not changed, but having this done in a truly mobile environment that instantly scales to a full scale desktop based studio should not be downplayed in my opinion, and it would not be possible without thunderbolt.
And once optical cables get here, it’s all extendable.
To me, it’s a big deal. To the sizzle core crowd, maybe not so much.
To each their own.
Jeremy
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[Virgil Weinstock] “[Jeremy Garchow] “Is was a bit premature, but HP was thinking about spinning off their desktop line last year.”
The guy who said that was almost immediately fired. For other reasons, yes, but the timing couldn’t possibly have been coincidental.
The new CEO immediately said, “We’ll evaluate,” which is code for “I’m sure he was on crack, but I should probably learn my secretary’s name and where the bathrooms are first,” and took a couple of weeks to say, “Yep, he was on crack. We’re a computer company. We make computers.”
Not to say that it will never happen, but “HP” may or may not have been thinking about going strictly cloud, but HP put a bullet in the head of the guy who actually said it out loud. The moral of the story is that HP is NOT thinking about it any time soon. The new boss is NOT the same as the old boss.
I guarantee that Apple will drop Mac Pros before HP drops workstations…and I’m not thinking Apple is in a hurry to drop Mac Pros…
So if you’re going to say that “HP thought about it,” you have to add, “…and then immediately double-tapped the guy behind the ear.””
They did think about it. I don’t think it was one person’s decision.
https://h20435.https://www2.hp.com/t5/The-Next-Bench-Blog/A-40-Billion-Start-up/ba-p/69111
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