What we like about Thunderbolt is that it
doesn’t just complement powerful computers used for demanding tasks, such as
the iMac and MacBook Pro; it’s also a great companion to more modest machines
like the MacBook Air. And there’s now a whole class of PCs following the
MacBook Air’s lead thanks to Intel’s ‘Ultrabook’ specification, a long-winded
way of saying ‘See the Mac- Book Air? That.’ Achieving these light and thin
designs means making some tough decisions about which ports are absolutely
essential and which can be abandoned, and that’s where Thunderbolt starts to
look extremely useful.
There
are three USB 2 ports, one FireWire 800 and one Gigabit Ethernet, all available
to the connected Mac
Not only does Thunderbolt do the work of
several earlier kinds of interface, but its use of the PCI Express protocol
means controllers that would normally have to be fitted inside the computer -
to handle, say, communication over Ethernet - can be moved outside, into an
adaptor which users attach to the Thunderbolt port if they need it. (The only
catch is that portable adaptors are unlikely to include a pass-through
Thunderbolt port from which to daisy chain other devices; that requires a
device in the middle of the chain to provide its own power supply.)
“Will it catch on? Two
signs are encouraging: it works amazingly well, and it’s becoming available in
PCs too”
Apple’s thunderbolt display leverages
this flexibility to provide a simple and effective multi-interface solution
for any Mac. Its built-in Thunderbolt cable connects it to a Mac, and there’s a
second pass-through port from which to chain another Thunderbolt device. This
is already an advantage over its Mini Display Port predecessor, which can only
be connected alone or at the end of a Thunderbolt chain - but it goes further.
Much of the Thunderbolt Display’s appeal lies in the extra ports on its back
panel. There are three USB 2 ports, one FireWire 800 and one Gigabit Ethernet,
all available to the connected Mac. So even a MacBook Air, once hooked up to
your desktop monitor with a single cable, gains the ability to work with
FireWire devices and connect to a cabled network at higher speeds than are
possible with the optional USB/Ethernet adaptor, which is limited to 100Mbit/sec.
Gigabit
Ethernet, all available to the connected Mac
The Thunderbolt Display is pricey, though,
and you might not be in the market for a new monitor. Fortunately, these hub
features are also starting to become available in separate, affordable devices.
Belkin has a Thunderbolt hub scheduled for release in September: dubbed the
Thunderbolt Express Dock, it features the same ports as the Thunderbolt Display
(without the display) and adds an HDMI output - ideal for connecting to an HDTV
or projector - and a 3.5mm audio jack.
The idea of a laptop docking station isn’t
new, of course - Apple used to sell them in the 1990s, and any number of
third-party solutions are available today for PCs and Macs, including the
popular Henge docks but what’s new about the forthcoming Thunderbolt variety is
that you’ll get more speed and flexibility in a unit suitable for Macs and PCs
alike. For the moment, however, Thunderbolt hubs won’t be cheap as chips:
Belkin’s will sell for $299 in the US, unlikely to translate into less than
$317 including VAT.
The
MacBook Air
The mac pro sticks out of today’s
Mac lineup like a sore thumb, with its old-school tower case and eye-watering
price tag. Since its last update more than two years ago, increasing numbers of
Mac professionals have bought iMacs instead, but for those involved in tasks
like video editing and effects the compromises are significant. The maximum
2TB of internal storage isn’t enough by itself, and the single drive can’t be
striped for performance or mirrored for data security. Until Thunderbolt, the
fastest connection for external drives, FireWire 800, was considerably slower
than the internal bus. With no room for internal expansion, the iMac can’t
accommodate the PCI Express cards that allow Mac Pro users to add specialist
features.
Thunderbolt promises to address both of
these issues. Sonnet’s Echo Express enclosures contain one PCI Express card
each and allow it to be connected externally to an iMac (or MacBook Pro) via
Thunderbolt. Despite having been announced more than a year ago, they’re still
not available at the time of writing, so if you’re still facing the choice
between aMac Pro and another Mac, you should keep an eye on Sonnet’s website
for news on availability and information on compatibility, to see if the card
you need will work when transplanted in this way. If so, you’ll have a lot more
options.
Sonnet’s
Echo Express enclosures contain one PCI Express card each and allow it to be
connected externally to an iMac (or MacBook Pro) via Thunderbolt
Sonnet also makes ExpressCard/34 adaptors
for Thunderbolt, which can be used with devices such as Matrox’s MX02 broadcast
quality video input/output boxes.
The most obvious way to take advantage of
Thunderbolt is to connect peripherals specifically designed for it, and
Thunderbolt storage devices have finally started to appear in reasonable
numbers. With massive bandwidth available, your Mac can read from and write to
external drives with no bottleneck, so your add-on storage can work just as
fast as your internal startup disk - or even faster. You could use a RAID
array, comprising two or more traditional hard disks in one box, or ditch
mechanical disk technology and go for the inherently quicker SSD (solid state
drive) technology that was introduced in the MacBook Air and is available as an
increasingly popular option in the MacBook Pro and iMac. On the following
pages we’ve tested a selection of both types of drive that are now available as
external Thunderbolt units.
You don’t necessarily need a Thunderbolt
drive to take advantage of Thunderbolt. Seagate and LaCie have released
adaptors that allow existing eSATA drives to be connected via Thunderbolt.
There are plenty of hard disks available with eSATA ports, an external form of
the SATA connectors that attach internal drives to a computer’s motherboard.
But Macs have never had eSATA, so these could only be used by Mac Pro and
MacBook Pro users with the addition of an eSATA expansion card via PCI Express
or ExpressCard/34 (the ExpressCard port has been eliminated, however, from all
current MacBook Pro models except the 17in).
Thunderbolt Display
“Pay and display. Apple’s $1143 Thunderbolt
Display has a pass-through I port (second from right, above) to enable other
Thunderbolt devices to be daisy chained after it. Display Port compatible
monitors can also be attached via Thunderbolt, but they have to be at the end
of the chain”
