Thunderbolt-Sonnet’s Echo™ Express PCIe 2.0 Expansion Chassis with Thunderbolt™ Ports

[Barry Johns]

Am I to understand you can put an HD1 pcie card in this an example and connect via Thunderbolt?

http://www.sonnettech.com/news/pr201...underbolt.html

[nst7]

Yes. Or an HD Native card. Assuming this works, it will be a great thing. And I've asked a few questions on the phone with these guys. One appealing thing is that the last I heard it will be an MSRP of $499, which means it will be even less through dealers. Way better than Magma's prices.

[Recallbeats]

depending on the card size, maybe the hd core will fit to this box. Unfortunetly only do 1 Pcie slot...

[nst7]

The write-up says it will be available in half-length and full length, both with cooling fans and power supplies.

[Dizzi45Z]

I bet if they made a PCI version of this, you would have a lot of happy Pro Tools HD users.

Recalibeats, how did you find out it only does 1 PCIe slot? It would be great if it could do 3 or more.

Heck... Why doesn't Avid ever consider making stuff like this? It would satisfy many more of their customers and make them some extra cash.

[zakco]

Originally Posted by Dizzi45Z

Why doesn't Avid ever consider making stuff like this? It would satisfy many more of their customers and make them some extra cash.

If Avid made this it would cost $5k instead of $500.

[John_Toolbox]

These are cool, but since they only hold a single card they aren't really practical for TDM core systems for most people. Assuming it will be compatible, it's very cool if you're using the HD native card.

If an updated TDM core card with more DSP capability comes out any time soon, this could be very cool.

[Mikey MTC]

I'm anticipating we won't be seeing "cards" as we know them at all in the future.

Imagine a non-descript box or even another computer with nothing but Pro Tools DSP muscle in it that connects via a single Thunderbolt connector to the host computer. (Even a laptop!)

So instead of my current system of a breakout PCI card into a huge and fragile chassis with six cards in it, I would have a single Thunderbolt connector going to another computer or black box that contained 2x, 4x or 10x the DSP power that I've had for 10 years.

Bandwidth wise, we're talking 10Gbps which is vastly more than all those gigabit ethernet based solutions. And if I'm not mistaken, this is also way more bandwidth than the PCIe solutions we're using now.

Thunderbolt made the all the video guys' jaws drop when they saw how much uncompressed HD video they can shove down the pipes, but I just dreamed about how much real-time DSP us Pro Tools guys can process. Surely these overly expensive and cumbersome PCI cards are finished?

[Dizzi45Z]

I so hope you are right. A Thunderbolt DSP system is definitely my hopes.

[Craig F]

shortest path is best, external increases potential problems (damages cables, damage ports)

I love the idea but dreed the potential damage