Thunderbolt supported test equipment from Tektronix

[Chris Harlan]

[Craig Seeman] “Apparently there’s very high demand for these amongst “consumers” since there’s nothing “pro” about Apple products since they’ve abandoned that market 😉
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/tektronix-delivers-thunderbolttm-technolog...
“

Now, Craig–did you happen to read the second paragraph of the press release? Here’s a part of it:

Thunderbolt’s four channel 10.3 Gbps I/O architecture is the most significant advancement in PC I/O design ever introduced into the consumer level electronics industry and Tektronix is dedicated to delivery of a broad portfolio of tools to facilitate the successful deployment of this new technology working in concert with Intel.

[Craig Seeman]

I read that and thought it was odd. I don’t know of any significant consumer Thunderbolt products. I’ve seen Video I/O, high speed storage, PCIe expansion boxes. Of course one might argue that if you can hook up a $300 Canon Vixia to a $300 Blackmagic Intensity Extreme, that’s “consumer.”

[Chris Harlan]

[Craig Seeman] “There’ve been a few who claim Apple is abandoning “pros” and included hardware as part of the comment.
“

Then count me among the “few” who may not claim it but at least wonder about it. And, TBolt is agnostic, neither Pro or consumer and can be used by both. The press release you linked to actually makes this claim:

“Thunderbolt’s four channel 10.3 Gbps I/O architecture is the most significant advancement in PC I/O design ever introduced into the consumer level electronics industry and Tektronix is dedicated to delivery of a broad portfolio of tools to facilitate the successful deployment of this new technology working in concert with Intel.”

[Chris Harlan]

[Craig Seeman] “I read that and thought it was odd. I don’t know of any significant consumer Thunderbolt products. I’ve seen Video I/O, high speed storage, PCIe expansion boxes. Of course one might argue that if you can hook up a $300 Canon Vixia to a $300 Blackmagic Intensity Extreme, that’s “consumer.””

I did make you a list a few weeks ago. It included Seagate’s GoFlex single drive adaptor, Western Digital’s MyBook, and Apple’s own glossy monitor that also acts as a very nice docking station. Belkin’s also coming out with a docking station.

Now, don’t get me wrong: I’m really enjoying my new TBolt connection; I just really don’t think the argument that it is somehow proof of Apple’s continued devotion to Professional users holds water.

[Craig Seeman]

[Chris Harlan] “Apple’s own glossy monitor that also acts as a very nice docking station.”

No argument there. Note my post about the rumor that Apple may be using a non glossy monitor in the upcoming iMac. Lots of supposition on my part admittedly but if they make this change in the aforementioned stand alone Thunderbolt monitor I’d take that as a good sign.

I personally can’t see why a consumer would buy any of the above drives. Firewire didn’t really make much of an impact on consumer hard drives either so I can’t imagine Thunderbolt fairing any better in that market.

[Derek Andonian]

“I read that and thought it was odd. I don’t know of any significant consumer Thunderbolt products.”

LaCie has a hard drive based on Thunderbolt, which is neither consumer or pro if you think about it. It could be used to store and play back footage from a RED Epic shoot, or it could also be used to quickly back up a mountain of funny cat videos…

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“THAT’S our fail-safe point. Up until here, we still have enough track to stop the locomotive before it plunges into the ravine… But after this windmill it’s the future or bust.”

[Craig Seeman]

[Greg Andonian] ” It could be used to store and play back footage from a RED Epic shoot, or it could also be used to quickly back up a mountain of funny cat videos…”

Not an either/or really. It’s for those with RED Epics shooing a mountain of funny cat videos. It must be for the Tosh.0 crew of course.

[Derek Andonian]

“Not an either/or really. It’s for those with RED Epics shooing a mountain of funny cat videos.”

That reminded me of the John Adobe video-

“Now I can edit my home movies in 4k!”

🙂

______________________________________________
“THAT’S our fail-safe point. Up until here, we still have enough track to stop the locomotive before it plunges into the ravine… But after this windmill it’s the future or bust.”

[Walter Soyka]

[Craig Seeman] “There’ve been a few who claim Apple is abandoning “pros” and included hardware as part of the comment.”

I might be considered one of those people, because I think Thunderbolt has been vastly overhyped here. Thunderbolt is game-changing for portability — look what you can do with a Thunderbolt-enabled laptop — but it’s not built for speed. 4x PCIe 2.0 just isn’t that fast anymore.

Saying that Thunderbolt is a consumer technology seems ridiculous because most of the early adopters will use it for professional applications.

Saying that Thunderbolt is a professional technology seems ridiculous because consumers’ needs expand, too. Saying that Thunderbolt isn’t necessary for consumers is like saying that 640K of RAM ought to be enough for anyone.

It’s just a pipe. There will be both consumer and professional devices that use it.

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
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