Whats the point of Thunderbolt for Pro Tools?

[sw0mgt]

Aren't HD users getting the same performance from Thunderbolt by using their PCIe slots? Why are people trying to use Thunderbolt for PT?

Is it just so users can enjoy the benefits of HD with an external plug and cable? (they don't have to OPEN the case to install the card -- good for laptops?)

[albee1952]

Thunderbolt is just another interface protocol. If you don't have it, you probably don't need it. If you have it, then you can take advantage of thunderbolt hard drives or the new UA Apollo thunderbolt interface. There have been a few new products in the past weeks/months that allow for thunderbolt to firewire(handy for new Mac owners that didn't get a firewire port) and thunderbolt to PCIe chassis' so you can run HD cards with a laptop.

[sw0mgt]

Originally Posted by albee1952

Thunderbolt is just another interface protocol. If you don't have it, you probably don't need it. If you have it, then you can take advantage of thunderbolt hard drives or the new UA Apollo thunderbolt interface. There have been a few new products in the past weeks/months that allow for thunderbolt to firewire(handy for new Mac owners that didn't get a firewire port) and thunderbolt to PCIe chassis' so you can run HD cards with a laptop.

Thanks. So it's probably not big news for tower users?

[bacchus40]

yeah i think its more of a laptop thing.... unfortunately going by recent certification {shoot yourself in the foot much?} requirement news from INTEL its gonna be a while before its a viable option...

for us HD/Native users it really isnt that big a deal, i've got plenty of HHD capabilities onboard, and Esata is plenty fast for external HDDs so... blesh.. thunderbolt-shmolderbolt


one area where I can see it being a useful protocol is if they had PCIe ready t-bolt cards we could use for HD video!.. that would make our lives a heck of a lot easier i'm sure...
i am def. interested in this as an option but it definitely is not a deal breaker... would be nice to just take my laptop on location n' track a full band with no latency though
live feeds would be an absolute dream...

[nst7]

It's not just about portability with laptops, but lower cost. You can use HD with an Imac, and have plenty of CPU power at a lower cost than a Mac Pro (and decent monitor).

[Craig F]

or Minis as feeders on a Dub Stage

[zoundsabar]

The most obvious benefit to come is going to be the Avid brand Thunderbolt I/O devices... Omni, MADI... etc. I can hardly wait!

[zedhed]

It's my understanding that Thunderbolt is a protocol offering higher data transfer speed than Firewire. If this is correct then the point/benefit is obvious; be it Laptop or PC.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

[Dism]

Originally Posted by zedhed

It's my understanding that Thunderbolt is a protocol offering higher data transfer speed than Firewire. If this is correct then the point/benefit is obvious; be it Laptop or PC.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

You're on the money.

TBolt is essentially the successor to FW. It's more or less the same as having a 1x PCIe lane. 10Gbit up and down, which is higher than USB3 and doesn't operate in burst packets. It can also be daisy chained like FW.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by Dism

You're on the money.

TBolt is essentially the successor to FW. It's more or less the same as having a 1x PCIe lane. 10Gbit up and down, which is higher than USB3 and doesn't operate in burst packets. It can also be daisy chained like FW.

Actually Thunderbolt offers up to two thunderbolt channels (each 10 Gbit/s bidirectional) per connector, able to deliver delivers 4 x PCIe 2.x lanes over that connector.

The numbers even work out...

PCIe 2.0 delivers 625 raw bidirectional throughput or 500 MB/sec actual peak data throughput per lane (the difference is the 8/10 bit symbol encoding overhead).

4 x PCIe 2.x = 4 x 625 MB/sec = 20 Gbit/sec (i.e. the two 2 x 10 Bit/sec Thunderbolt channels per connector).

the details of exactly what you get in real life depends on the actual hardware. Tom's Hardware has some good stuff on this, e.g. see the series of articles linked starting here http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...80,3205-3.html.

The best way to think of thunderbolt is its really different to other busses, while it offers USB and Firewire type capabilities it is at its core a way of providing remote PCIe slots. You can then you can do lots with that infrastructure. Inserting the types of devices - whether they are really PCIe cards or more often chipsets talking the PCIe protocol without all the usual PCIe expansion card support ecosystem.

Especially for Mac users Thunderbolt may replace many Firewire, but USB-3 will have a role here as well, I expect there will be many lower-cost devices available for USB-3.

And Thunderbolt won't wholesale replace real PCIe slots. A 4x PCIe 2.x performance is still pretty low performance compared to high-end PCIe graphics or other cards today that can use 16 x PCIe 2.0 lanes, or applications where folks want 16 x PCIe 3.0 lanes. (PCIe 3.0 support over Thunderbolt is still being sorted out). For audio applications however 4 x PCIe 2.0 is a fair amount of bandwidth.

Darryl