Items tagged with Thunderbolt
Many professionals like to use Apple’s MacBook Pro range when on the go, however, these notebooks aren’t exactly known for their graphics prowess — even with discrete GPU options available. Couple that with the fact that Apple has not exactly been on top of things when it comes to upgrading its Mac lineup over the years, you can understand why customers could be left wanting for some extra graphics muscle. That’s where Wolfepack Inc.’s Wolfe external graphics enclosure comes into play. The project hit Kickstarter yesterday and it has already reached its funding goal of $50,000. In fact, the project...
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Thunderbolt (and its Thunderbolt 2 successor) is a technically impressive high-speed data standard. Thunderbolt offers maximum bandwidth of 10Gbps while, Thunderbolt 2 doubled that to 20Gbps. However, the standard, which is used for everything from hyper-fast external storage solutions to external graphics cards, has been slow to take off. You can blame the high-priced Thunderbolt peripherals and the uber-expensive cables (at last when compared to your garden variety USB cables). For most people, USB 3.0 is “good enough” and making a huge investment into the Thunderbolt ecosystem has been reserved...
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It's tough to say when, or if, the heralded USB port will ever be truly replaced in the eyes of the masses. But Thunderbolt is sure working towards becoming a great secondary option, if not an outright replacement in time. At this year's NAB Show in Las Vegas, Intel announced Thunderbolt 2. It's the latest edition of the high-speed transfer protocol, with a bandwidth boost up to 20Gbps. Moreover, there's the addition of Thunderbolt Networking, which effectively acts as a crossover cable in order to allow two computers to directly connect and share information over a high-speed superhighway. Thunderbolt...
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Western Digital used MacWorld as a springboard to announce its new My Passport Pro, the first portable, Thunderbolt-powered dual-drive storage solution. The high-performance storage device is intended specifically for Mac users working with large files including photographers, videographers, graphic designers, and other creative pros, WD says. Since this is a dual-drive solution, users can choose between RAID 0 for added performance or RAID 1 for data redundancy. "The only Thunderbolt dual-drive solution that’s bus-powered, WD’s My Passport Pro enhances the workflow of mobile creative...
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Storage products maker LaCie is claiming an industry-first 5TB 7200 RPM hard drive, and it’s deploying the spacious HDD in several Thunderbolt-equipped devices. “Increasingly larger file formats for film and photography have driven the demand for more storage capacity,” reads a LaCie press release. “The availability of 5TB hard drives enables LaCie to deliver significantly more storage capacity in its same compact desktop designs.” The LaCie 5big Thunderbolt Series, 2big Thunderbolt Series, and the d2 Thunderbolt Series, as well as the LaCie 2big Quadra and d2 Quadra...
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We spent a little time meeting with the folks from Gigabyte while zipping from demo suite to demo suite at CES, and have some interesting products to show you. Along with a their wide array of existing motherboards, graphics cards, and peripherals, Gigabyte was showing off some brand new products as well, including a few updated (and more powerful) Brix small form factor machines and a couple of Thunderbolt 2.0 certified motherboards. This GA-ZZ87X-UD7 TH is one of Gigabyte’s latest flagship Z87 Express based motherboards for Intel’s 4th Gen Core processors. In addition...
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Things are about to get faster. The USB Promoter Group announced that it has completed the USB 3.1 specification, which will enable SuperSpeed USB performance of 10Gbps. This, of course, rivals Intel and Apple’s blazing fast 10Gbps Thunderbolt interface, and the new USB connection will make use of more efficient data encoding, and it will be compatible with earlier USB specifications (USB 3.0 and 2.0). USB 3.1 will offer double the effective data throughput of current SuperSpeed USB offerings. Developers will be able to learn technical details of the new spec this summer and...
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Intel’s Thunderbolt interface technology is not yet ubiquitous, although it’s common among Macs and slowly catching on in the PC industry, but the company is already plowing forward with a new controller called “Falcon Ridge” that promises to double Thunderbolt’s already impressive 10Gbps. The technology is being called “Thunderbolt 2” and offers a whopping 20Gbps of bandwidth. The way it works is that two previously-separate 10Gbps channels are combined into a single, bi-directional channel, and that new channel can handle both data and display. On its...
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Intel’s Thunderbolt interface technology is blazing fast, and it’s getting an upgrade in the form of the new DSL4510/4410 controllers, which Intel is showing off at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) this week in Las Vegas. Specifically, the new controllers support DisplayPort 1.2 when connected to native displays, as well as better power management and lower platform BOM costs. The chip giant also debuted the prototype silicon for its upcoming Falcon Ridge Thunderbolt controller. Falcon Ridge promises 20Gbps speed, which will make handling 4K video files much easier; Intel...
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Most HTPCs have more modest components than your average gaming rig, and they’re typically designed to be quiet and to blend in with a home theater. Enthusiasts who go the HTPC route will often keep a dedicated PC in the media room and keep another set up for serious gaming. Velocity Micro is apparently not a fan of that model, because the company just released a monster system called the Raptor Multiplex that’s designed to be a kitchen sink sort of computer with both powerful gaming capabilities and all the home media amenities you’d want. The solid all- black aluminum chassis...
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A humorous thing about CES is that every year, there's always a couple of buzzwords that you can't ignore. "3D" has been a big one in recent years, as has been "cloud", "ultrabooks", "superphones' and so on. This year, a major buzzword is one that really caught fire throughout 2012: "4K". We're of course talking about display resolutions here, though exactly how it's used varies. While true 4K displays are going to take a while to catch on due to their cost (we are talking ~8 million pixels+, after all), some companies have found ways to use the buzzword elsewhere, such as GIGABYTE. At CES, the...
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Look out, Thunderbolt! Apple and Intel's high-speed interconnect just got some new competition, but if you aren't looking closely, you may think it's actually old technology. USB 3.0 is planning to get a major update, and in fact, it'll end up doubling the transfer rates of an already quick technology. The USB 3.0 Promoter Group today announced development of a SuperSpeed USB (USB 3.0) enhancement that will add a much higher data rate, delivering up to twice the data through-put performance of existing SuperSpeed USB over enhanced, fully backward compatible USB connectors and cables. This supplement...
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With its orange bumper and snow-white housing, the LaCie Rugged looks downright dainty. But LaCie says that the portable SSD can handle 4-foot drops and is meant to withstand the rigors of frequent shipping. Toughness aside, what makes the device really interesting is its dual USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt ports and support for bus power. According to LaCie, the Rugged offers up to 380MB/s bus-powered speeds. You’ll need to use electrical Thunderbolt cables (as opposed to faster optical Thunderbolt cables) to bus power the device. The box includes an electrical Thunderbolt cable and a USB...
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Thunderbolt, originally dubbed “Light Peak”, is a dual-protocol interface that combines PCI-Express and DisplayPort into one metaprotocol with bi-directional speeds of up to 10Gbps. The technology makes even the relatively speedy USB 3.0 interface (5Gbps) look downright pokey by comparison. What would you do if you were a storage company and had this next-gen I/O technology in hand? Probably more or less what Western Digital has done, which is to make an external storage device that teams Thunderbolt’s impressive interface bandwidth with a pair of the company's fastest 1TB VelociRaptor...
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