XITE - Connection options - will USB3 be the new thing?

[petal]

Why a step backwards - please explain.

The interesting details I see are:
- Larger bandwith than any other connection out there
- Crossplatform = I only need 1 interface for both my windows machines and mac's (Both desktop and laptop)

[garyb]

it's the pci-e bus, so it's roughly the same bandwidth as the pci-e bus, which has no real bandwidth issues.

pci-e is cross platform. assuming that there is an osx version, connecting to a pc or mac takes the same connector. actually, there's nothing stopping anyone from using an XITE on a mac running windows.

the thunderbolt controller sits on top of the os, just like firewire and usb, afaik(i could be very wrong). if so, it's subject to the same disadvantages as those other hot-swap protocols. the pci-e bus connection is below the os, which means a more stable connection, with a better chance of using resources efficiently. thunderbolt might be a great idea, it's probably not impossible to implement, i'm not sure that there's any real advantage except that it's new and has a cool name.

[siriusbliss]

To describe it from the HW up:

4 PCIE gen2 lanes run from the CPU/GPU (Ivybridge and Sandybridge architecture) directly to
the controller chip.
The controller chip converts the 4 pcie lanes into two TB lanes (currently over copper at 10Gbps each).

The drivers for all of this are part of the OS, so I guess you could say TB is 'inside' in addition to 'under' the OS, but in actuality it's much more reliant on firmware, and is a much-more direct link directly inside the CPU/GPU than any of the older USB or firewire protocols.

There is also firmware for the controller (and CPU/GPU).

All of this has to work together for proper operation.

It's a very sophisticated and relatively elegant interface compared to the hodge-podge of interfaces we have now.

We're at the next step in the evolution of interfaces going to USB3 and Thunderbolt, but in the end TB will be the fastest, nastiest, highest-bandwidthiest interface when it evolves to being light-based.

At which time all hell breaks loose

Greg

[siriusbliss]

Here's a good article on Thunderbolt (and comparisons to other protocols).

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-574527 ... ditorPicks

Greg