Comments on: SuperSpeed USB Coming, Whither Thunderbolt? Probably…

By: Thunderbolt: Welcome to the Bureaucracy - FairerPlatform

Thunderbolt: Welcome to the Bureaucracy - FairerPlatform — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 13:50:20 +0000

[...] Compare Intel’s commitment to Thunderbolt as stated above with their mission statement for SuperSpeed USB: [...]

By: Tom

Tom — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 11:25:50 +0000

And Thunderbolt will be able to carry ultraspeed USB too…. Thunderbolt is awesome because you can throw any protocol over it, plus your video signal. So, imagine a single cable from your tower to display for power, video and as many data ports of any kind that you want…. Will ultraspeed USB carry video too…

By: Barney

Barney — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 01:58:21 +0000

I love FireWire. It is certainly technically and practically the superior of the 2 technologies.

But you know where USB absolutely KILLS FireWire?
It still uses the same connector – USB1, USB2 & USB3.
As frustrating to use as that same-looking-both-sides plug is, at least everything is instantly backwards compatible. No adaptor cables or missing outlets to deal with.

It’s ease of use like that where Apple should have competed better with FireWire. Instead they chose to push its technical superiority, hoping that would win out. Sounds like the engineers needed a whack ’round the head with a Marketing Manual!

Apple use FireWire400, a different plug for FireWire800, and Oh joy – yet another one for Thunderbolt.
(I realise TBolt ‘ain’t FireWire, but it replaces it throughout the Apple range)

In addition, Apple chose to keep the licensing costs for FireWire way too high – shooting itself in the foot in a price conscious, but vast market.

By: Don

Don — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 15:39:07 +0000

While your analysis is interesting, I would respectfully submit it is a bit too simplistic. Supporters of the Firewire (Apple’s name for IEEE 1394), it was a different type of beast. It was a serial port, but fast enough to replace most parallel connections and was usually treated that way. Thus, it was seen as an expensive replacement for SCSI and Parallel connectors, that were in use by hundreds of millions of devices. Converting would have been outrageously expensive and 1384 became the videographers connection of choice rather than the computing connection of choice.

Meanwhile, Apple was shifting to the goal of a single connector that would rule them all. This is obviously Apple’s goal with Thunderbolt: a single, simple, fast, capable connector to replace other connectors. It is more expensive that either a USB port or a 1394 port, but it can do the job of both. It appears to be beginning to catch on with other manufacturers, but only time will tell.

Meanwhile, time is the factor you are ignoring. According to everythingUSB.com, “What’s certain is that the new specs won’t be completed until later half of 2013. First wave of “double-speed” USB 3.0 products likely won’t hit stores until 2015.” So Apple, which now has far greater cache than it did when it introduced 1394, will have two years to make Thunderbolt a standard. This may interest people tired of futzing around with the six USB connectors currently in use.