HDN Thunderbolt & Windows Laptop

[Caslon]

Anybody got a windows Thunderbolt laptop and using it with HDN?

If so, which laptops are you using?

Cheers

[Craig F]

a few options
https://thunderbolttechnology.net/pr...any_to_one=All

[Brandonx1]

I thought avid has not come out with thunderbolt hd native hardware drivers yet.

[JCBigler]

The Lenovo W540 has Thunderbolt. That's what I'm eyeing as my replacement laptop.

[8dB.co.uk]

There are YouTube clips of Lenovo laptops recording 250 tracks using HDN Thunderbolt. As TB is little more than pcie over cable the pcie hdn drivers seem to come into play.

[JCBigler]

Originally Posted by 8dB.co.uk

There are YouTube clips of Lenovo laptops recording 250 tracks using HDN Thunderbolt. As TB is little more than pcie over cable the pcie hdn drivers seem to come into play.

Link? I want to see this.

[guitardom]

Originally Posted by 8dB.co.uk

There are YouTube clips of Lenovo laptops recording 250 tracks using HDN Thunderbolt. As TB is little more than pcie over cable the pcie hdn drivers seem to come into play.

Its a little more problematic than that. There is a few issues holding us in the Windows world back from having more compatible Thunderbolt devices. The biggest issue is the lack of a universal driver that is needed from Microsoft. Until then, there is a multitude of variations of Thunderbolt drivers that are individual to each manufacturer such as Gigabyte, Asus, Intel, etc. It would require the devs such as Avid to write individual code for each specific driver. The trick for Windows development has been utilizing other protocols for the I/O. In the case for Universal Audio for instance it was the internal Firewire lanes they used to allow support on Windows machines for Thunderbolt devices. The reason the Apollo Twin and any updated drivers since on any UA TB devices will lose support on Windows is because they have now started writing specific TB drivers that will travel on the PCI lanes as intended and where the problem lies with Windows. Sure they will catch up as they did with Firewire, just a matter of when. What method Avid used to get TB capability in Windows, I do not know.

[8dB.co.uk]

I have heard that it is literally plug and play. No need to write to lots of manufacturers - you can only have TB if you have an Intel chip set.

[8dB.co.uk]

Originally Posted by JCBigler

Link? I want to see this.

http://www.pro-tools-expert.com/home...indows-pc.html

It's actually ProTools Expert from a while back. Lenovo don't make this lap top any more though.

[guitardom]

Originally Posted by 8dB.co.uk

I have heard that it is literally plug and play. No need to write to lots of manufacturers - you can only have TB if you have an Intel chip set.

No, Neil and I had meetings at Namm with UA about this and why they are not supporting Windows at this point and why it was working for some. What it comes down to is lack of a unified Windows driver. This creates a problem for hardware devs in the same way it took a couple years for Microsoft to get a unified FireWire driver together and allow more development. There are work arounds and what devs are doing to support TB on Windows but it will keep development at a minimum.

And yes it's Intel only and only 4th gen processors (Haswell) and newer.