Quote:
Originally Posted by 8dB.co.uk
So let me get this straight. UA are using FireWire over Thunderbolt, whereas Avid are using PCIe over TB? I've seen inside a HDN-TB box and it's little more than a standard HDN-PCIe card with an alternate connector.
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You are misunderstanding a bit. At the I/O buss different protocols can be accessed including the Firewire, Usb, TB, PCI, etc. This is all internal and not dependant on which "connector" is used. Regardless which protocol is chosen (including PCI or TB), drivers are needed. The problem is that there are no "universal" TB drivers for Windows. Each motherboard dev (Gigabyte, Asus, Etc.) has basically created their own at this point to make it work. Firewire suffered from this exact same thing when it was first introduced to Windows and why it took a couple years for Firewire to catch on in the Windows world and work properly. Since apple has complete control of who creates its Motherboards and OS, implementation is quite simple.
Up till recently UA had been using the Firewire drivers by accessing the Firewire buss (on both Windows and Mac) from Thunderbolt in order to get it going while they wrote new specific drivers for Thunderbolt. They completed this with the release of the UA Apollo twin and updated new drivers for the regular Apollo. Its why the Twin would not work on Windows period and the regular Apollo lost all Windows use from this new driver forward. They never actually supported Windows with the Apollo, but it would work for most users since it was just using the standard Microsoft Firewire driver. UA would not speak on how Avid accomplished getting TB going, but assumed it was a similar approach.
Neil did a piece on it for PTE after we got back from Namm. Sure the thread is still there and would be dated back at early February.