We've received a lot of questions recently about the thunderbolt Interface. It's an exciting and new technology and there's been a lot of chatter in the production industry about its adaptation. Because most of the questions I've received require short answers, I thought I'd try to tackle them here in one inclusive post.
If you have additional questions, you can send a message here or on our FB page.
Q: What options are available if you have data on a Thunderbolt, but the computer you're connecting to isn't Thunderbolt ready?
A: At this time, you can only connect to a computer that is Thunderbolt enabled.
Q: Can we expect to see drives with multiple connections? Like Thunderbolt plus FireWire?
A: At this point, no one makes a chip set that merges both Thunderbolt and other drive interfaces. Adding FireWire would add to the cost of Thunderbolt drives so I don't see this happening in the near future. (Maybe once there's a wider adoption of the technology.) At this time, you need to have a new computer with the Thunderbolt chip set to use Thunderbolt.
5-11-2012 edit: LaCie makes an eSATA-Thunderbolt Hub that allows you to connect eSATA drives to a new Thunderbolt-enabled Mac. It was created for companies that currently use eSATA drives and have upgraded their Macs to versions without ExpressCard/34 slots. It also provides a way for creatives to boost their eSATA drive performance.
Q: Do Thunderbolt drives come with the cable?
A: No. At this time, Apple is the only source for the cable. That may change once more companies start manufacturing the cable. To keep costs low, the drive manufacturers are not including the cable. However, if you buy a Thunderbolt drive from Polyline, we have some drive/cable bundles available.
Q: Is there a limit to how many drives can be daisy chained together and is there any loss of speed with multiple drives attached?
A: There is a limit to 6 devices that can be daisy chained together. There is no loss of speed from daisy chaining. The maximum transfer speed is 800MB/s write and up to 10 GB/s for read.
Q: Can you get thunderbolt cards for a computer that doesn't have it?
A: Not at this time.
Q: Any plans for an SSD model Thunderbolt?
A: I talked to G-Technology and was told, at this time the answer is no. But Western Digital, which recently acquired G-Tech, does have an SSD division. Although there are no official plans, we can totally see this happening in the near future.
If you have additional questions, you can send a message here or on our FB page.
A: At this time, you can only connect to a computer that is Thunderbolt enabled.
Q: Can we expect to see drives with multiple connections? Like Thunderbolt plus FireWire?
A: At this point, no one makes a chip set that merges both Thunderbolt and other drive interfaces. Adding FireWire would add to the cost of Thunderbolt drives so I don't see this happening in the near future. (Maybe once there's a wider adoption of the technology.) At this time, you need to have a new computer with the Thunderbolt chip set to use Thunderbolt.
5-11-2012 edit: LaCie makes an eSATA-Thunderbolt Hub that allows you to connect eSATA drives to a new Thunderbolt-enabled Mac. It was created for companies that currently use eSATA drives and have upgraded their Macs to versions without ExpressCard/34 slots. It also provides a way for creatives to boost their eSATA drive performance.
Q: Do Thunderbolt drives come with the cable?
A: No. At this time, Apple is the only source for the cable. That may change once more companies start manufacturing the cable. To keep costs low, the drive manufacturers are not including the cable. However, if you buy a Thunderbolt drive from Polyline, we have some drive/cable bundles available.
Q: Is there a limit to how many drives can be daisy chained together and is there any loss of speed with multiple drives attached?
A: There is a limit to 6 devices that can be daisy chained together. There is no loss of speed from daisy chaining. The maximum transfer speed is 800MB/s write and up to 10 GB/s for read.
Q: Can you get thunderbolt cards for a computer that doesn't have it?
A: Not at this time.
Q: Any plans for an SSD model Thunderbolt?
A: I talked to G-Technology and was told, at this time the answer is no. But Western Digital, which recently acquired G-Tech, does have an SSD division. Although there are no official plans, we can totally see this happening in the near future.
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