Thunderbolt 3 Overview [pdf]

https://thunderbolttechnology.net/sites/default/files/Thunderbolt_3_Overview_Brief_FINAL.pdf

by fezz • 11 years ago

18 38 11 years ago

thunderbolttechnology.net

KevinMS• 11 years ago

Can somebody give me a quick overview of how and when to spend my money on this?

fezz2• 11 years ago

The new xeon for laptops will have TB3.

modfodder4• 11 years ago

As a video editor that deals with terabytes of footage, in practice thunderbolt is much faster than USB3. It's common that i have to copy 1-4 terrabytes onto several drives for editors, fx artists, archival, etc usually on deadline. I don't care that thunderbolt isn't as ubiquitous as usb, but like firewire before it, I'm glad it's there and common enough.

DiabloD38• 11 years ago

Except that many companies use large scale centralized network storage and are exporting the files over their network protocol of choice, and only need local storage for caching, temp, and swap.

gcb04• 11 years ago

when you have some special equipment that needs it.

keep in mind that USB2 is already overkill for external HDDs. and USB3 become overkill for SSDs. technically, you won't ever need usb3.1.

DiabloD38• 11 years ago

USB2 maxes out at 60MB/sec. I cannot remember when I had a drive that was so slow, I think I'd have to go back to single or double digit gigabytes.

In comparison, modern HDDs exceed 150mb/sec on writes, more on reads.

DiabloD38• 11 years ago

Intel continues to refuse to deploy Thunderbolt by default on Z series chipsets (Z87, Z97, Zwhatever LGA1151/Broadwell uses).

I'd love to adopt Thunderbolt, Intel literally refuses to sell it to me.

wmf2• 11 years ago

There are plenty of Z97 motherboards with Thunderbolt: https://thunderbolttechnology.net/products?tid=15&field_comp... I don't understand why it matters whether it's default or not.

DiabloD38• 11 years ago

Neither of my Z97 motherboards come with it, it is roughly a $100 premium to get it.

If it doesn't come with systems by default, no one is going to use it. I'm interested in it purely for IP-over-Thunderbolt.

gcb04• 11 years ago

of course not. they would have to double the price of the board to get it in!

thunderbolt is not innovative. it is just a canon. so far everyone is killing flies. so, no need for that. putting that extra $100 or so on each and every board would certainly just drive consumers away.

DiabloD38• 11 years ago

See my reply here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10029607

JohnTHaller2• 11 years ago

You can get it on motherboards where the manufacturer chooses to pay the licensing fee and submit to the Intel certification requirements/tests/fees. It's an option. Not every motherboard manufacturer chooses to do this and make consumers pay more for the motherboards for a feature that most consumers will never utilize.

mikhailt• 11 years ago

Intel will include TB3 by default for the mobile Xeon lineup they just announced a few days ago.

mkautzm• 11 years ago

The problem I foresee with Thunderbolt 3 is that it's serving a use that few people need at a price that no one wants to pay. The price-point issues might disappear with the USB-C compatibility, but even then, the only time I can ever foresee me actually reaching for Thunderbolt is for a display when DP 1.3 isn't an option or when huge data xfers were commonplace.

Unless it competes on price point with USB, I can't see this being any more popular than previous iterations of the protocol.

Maybe that'd change some if Intel actually put it on the enthusiast chipsets, but even then, I think the price point is a pretty big turnoff.

modfodder4• 11 years ago

I don't think it will ever be as ubiquitous as USB, but it doesn't have to be useful. I'm a video editor and thunderbolt has saved me enough time copying files that i'll gladly pay the price. The cost typically gets passed along to clients and at rates of $100/hr or more for a single editor they'll happily pay the extra cost of the drives if it saves a few hours over the life of a project.

threeseed• 11 years ago

4K displays are going to become the new norm over the coming years. In which case those that use dual monitors (many of us) are going to want Thunderbolt 3 to drive them.

Also having multiple ports of the same type on laptops is going to be far better than the current status quo which is a nightmare for many on a day to day basis (you need which adapter for the work projector again ?).

Thinner, easier to use, more flexible laptops that can support multiple Retina displays seems pretty compelling to me. And you can sure as hell bet Apple will be all over this.

bluthru2• 11 years ago

Really impressive that this can handle basically everything that's thrown at it. "Yeah, it'll provide power and is backwards compatible with other protocols. External GPU to game with your laptop? No problem. Oh, and the connector is smaller than before, too."

steve19• 11 years ago

That was the promise of thunderbird 2 (or 1)...

fezz2• 11 years ago

TB3 being tied into USB-C means more possibilities on the consumer side if they price it right.

TB1/2 were weak in many respects but pricing and adoption were the main ones.

bluthru2• 11 years ago

I believe 3 is finally fast enough.

masklinn• 11 years ago

Not quite, eGPU wasn't officially supported for instance. Port compatibility with USB (and thus not having to give up USB ports) might also be a big factor, and TB2 power delivery, while higher than pre Power Delivery USB, was only 10W IIRC.

The problem remains the extra cost of integrating TB. Hopefully the cost will come down with Alpine Ridge.

slamus• 11 years ago

OMG external graphics card !

lewisl9029• 11 years ago

WiGig is a more practical technology, in my humble opinion.

I have a WiGig-enabled laptop and a WiGig dock with 3 1080p monitors, a Ethernet cable, and all of my peripherals connected to the dock including a 10 port hub with a USB3 HDD.

I can transfer files to my HDD (80MB/s), to the network (90MB/s), play 1080p videos on 1 monitor, browser on another, and play games on the last one without noticing any latency at all.

And I can move my laptop to the other side of the room without any noticeable connection issues, which is pretty surprising considering they're advertising WiGig as a short-range wireless technology (although having large obstructions between the laptop and the dock will cause problems very quickly).

For a first-gen product, I'm pretty impressed. The room-wide wireless gigabit Ethernet alone is already a killer feature for me, but the multiple wireless displays and peripherals makes for an even more amazing package. Can't wait to see how they iterate on it.

Thunderbolt 3 Overview [pdf]

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