Don't hold your breath for Thunderbolt with optical fibre at DVinfo.net

Andrew Smith · September 16th, 2011, 06:59 AM

[snippity-snip]

Intel's Thunderbolt high-speed interconnect technology, which shuffles data between PCs and devices like displays and external storage, could be years away from getting optical technology, an Intel executive said this week.

Thunderbolt, originally introduced in February on Apple's Macintosh computers, was pitched as being optical technology but currently uses copper wires. Fiber optics are expensive to implement, and copper wires are working much better than expected, said Dadi Perlmutter, executive vice president and general manager of the Intel Architecture Group, in an interview at the Intel Developer Forum being held in San Francisco.

More at: Intel's Thunderbolt with fiber optics years away - Computerworld

Andrew

Christopher Ruffell · September 16th, 2011, 07:48 PM

Interesting... good to know.

What a great technology though, if only copper for now. I look forward to just having (I know, dreaming a bit here) just two main I/O plugs - USB 3 and ThunderBolt. I want my USB jack to stick around for a long time so I can use legacy components, and won't have to think. Thunderbolt = awesome. Give me a couple jacks though.

Doesn't the current implementation of Thunderbolt in Macs have the tech to use optical if an external device is optical?

September 16th, 2011, 06:59 AM	#1
Andrew Smith Equal Opportunity Offender Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Brisbane, Australia Posts: 3,062	Don't hold your breath for Thunderbolt with optical fibre [snippity-snip] Intel's Thunderbolt high-speed interconnect technology, which shuffles data between PCs and devices like displays and external storage, could be years away from getting optical technology, an Intel executive said this week. Thunderbolt, originally introduced in February on Apple's Macintosh computers, was pitched as being optical technology but currently uses copper wires. Fiber optics are expensive to implement, and copper wires are working much better than expected, said Dadi Perlmutter, executive vice president and general manager of the Intel Architecture Group, in an interview at the Intel Developer Forum being held in San Francisco. More at: Intel's Thunderbolt with fiber optics years away - Computerworld Andrew

September 16th, 2011, 07:48 PM	#2
Christopher Ruffell Major Player Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Victoria, BC Posts: 202	Re: Don't hold your breath for Thunderbolt with optical fibre Interesting... good to know. What a great technology though, if only copper for now. I look forward to just having (I know, dreaming a bit here) just two main I/O plugs - USB 3 and ThunderBolt. I want my USB jack to stick around for a long time so I can use legacy components, and won't have to think. Thunderbolt = awesome. Give me a couple jacks though. Doesn't the current implementation of Thunderbolt in Macs have the tech to use optical if an external device is optical?