Well a lot of that was how thunderbolt, if realized, could make these same things EASIER.
GbE is more than capable of handling RDP tasks, and presently there are lots of people sharing a single high performance workstations with seperate video, some sort of USB hub, and whatever else is needed.
GbE RDP isn't doing to full screen hi-res video very well. But yes for mainstream, 2D, desktop work it works fine as long as don't choke the network bandwidth path between server and client.
Multiple video card output per user isn't very common. The number of folks using RDP/"Terminal Services" is substantially higher. There is a corner case with Microsoft Multipoint Server Stations (
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/wms-2011-station-components.aspx ) that could be 'cleaned up' by combining the video and usb link onto one cable but that's a very narrow market.
There are two other MMServer set-ups: USB zero and RDP over LAN. USB zero will pick up much more deployment flexibility when it comes to video with the shift to USB 3.0. Rapidly changing video is likely still a problem but the working range is larger. RDP over LAN would simply work better on 10GbE than 1GbE. 10GbE will likely get cheaper in the future. 1Gb Wifi will certainly get cheaper in the future and that requires
no wires/cables.
MMServer's Direct-video and USB zero modes do have a distance problem. Thunderbolt doesn't have exclusive distance benefits; quality optical fiber does. Fiber isn't exclusive to TB.
Should someone add Thunderbolt to MMServer's repetoire? Sure. Is that going to revolutionize Direct-video deployments in number and quantity? Probably not.
The huge disconnect here is that Apple doesn't have a MutliPoint Server solution like this. The closest is Lion/Mountain Lion multiple session VNC based solution.
http://appleinsider.com/articles/11/03/31/mac_os_x_10_7_lion_to_introduce_multi_user_screen_sharing
VNC is firmly rooted in Ethernet ( wired or wireless ) based deployment. A hack could be layered on top of Thunderbolt to leverage it, but Thunderbolt isn't really an "Direct video server" enabling solution.
Thunderbolt DOES give the ability for one capable to be routed to each workstation, which is great for simplifying situations where, in fact, a single high performance workstation is better than several consumer grade machines, and yet high performance machines at each workstations are not feasible.
It is doubtful Thunderbolt is going to route more than 3 ( limit is 2 now) video steams. Its Display Port stream size is extremely likely going to be limited to the number of screens the vast majority of folks attach to computers. That number is <3 now but they could bump to 3 for "power users", but it is unlikely to go past that.
Yes, it's existing technology. Heck, Steve Jobs demo'ed it with the original iMac a bazillion years ago. Thunderbolt could simple make it cleaner and easier. I'm not talking about next week, I'm talking about where thunderbolt could be realized in the future. Thunderbolt being less limited to the types of roles it can have is where the genius is. Multiple cables replaced with one is what it's all about, in this case.
But it isn't cleaner and easier. RDP/VNC is one cable (Ethernet). Previous generation's serial vt100/vt220/tn3270 links were a one cable.
There is nothing 'easier' here in terms of physical deployment.
It may be faster, more performant, in some circumstances. Or more cost effective (e.g., against 10GbE which has stubbornly stuck to higher prices even after the appearance of 40 and 100GbE. ). However, easier, in some new way, is highly questionable.
As far as FibreChannel and such, I still think TB could, in a few years, be poised to replace it as a low cost similar performing alternative.
Wrong tool for the wrong job. FibreChannel is used to build Storage Area Networks (SAN). Thunderbolt is oriented to Direct Attached Storage (DAS). A DAS solution isn't going replace a SAN one. It is largely a different tool.
Some may try to spin the notion that Thunderbolt is some sort of NAS, but it isn't. One computer is manipulating the SATA/USB/Firewire controllers spread out over the Thunderbolt 'network' is not NAS. It is largely one system with the parts distributed. It is not multiple consumers 'talking' to the storage controllers it is just one, with perhaps multiple streams, talking to many. A 1:N ration instead of a N:1 ratio. There is a very substantive difference between the two.
Additionally, Thunderbolts pragmatic 6 device limitation makes it far more a DAS solution than a NAS or SAN solution which are scalable to a completely different degree.
There is likely some hackery you can do with custom drivers layered on top of Thunderport's PCI-e layer that create a virtual Ethernet or FC layer. That coupled with attaching a local CPU to the perhiperal along with the storage controllers and similar virtual Ethernet drivers would get you NAS/SAN over Thunderbolt, but you are still stuck with the limited device network.
The coolest thing about that, in my mind, is actually going to be in the small scale, not the large scale. I know of a few individuals who are in fields where they have a large storage array connected to several workstations. Using anything from GbE to FibreChannel. In theory, a thunderbolt 'network' could deliver as good or better performance at a lower cost.
That is only if they limit themselves to old GbE and 4-8Gb FC. There are faster Ethernet (10GbE ) and FC ( 10GbFCoE ) solutions that should start to come down in price with arrival of 40 and 100 GbE which also can leverage fiber if need distance and low/lower RF interfence.
This is close to the same "theory" that Firewire 800 storage networks would displace limited 100MbE SAN networks more cheaply.
Heck, even if the rack-side equipment cost exactly the same, the ability to connect directly to a workstation (assuming Xeon support for thunderbolt and thunderbolt on future Mac Pros) without having to buy very expensive interface cards would save several hundred to well over a thousand bucks per client.
Thunderbolt doesn't obviate interface cards. It just moves their location outside the box. This is one of the core, deeply seated, misconceptions about Thunderbolt. It is just a transport for PCI-e (and Display Port). The need the functionality that formerly resided on a PCI-e card (that went into a PCI-e slot) is
still there. All Thunderbolt does is move the pragmatic location of the card
outside the box of the "personal computer". That's it. The interface card is still there. It is now embedded into the external peripheral.
So instead of buying the card and being able to use different peripherals that attach to that card, you now buy the card and peripheral bundled together. That is one reason the prices are higher.
Thunderbolt is a big win on devices that don't have PCI-e slots (i.e., everything except the Mac Pro).
It's an odd 'trickle down'. When we were on 10BaseT and the servers ran 100BaseT, the servers upgraded to 1000BaseT and we got 10/100 LAN, then we got gigabit and the servers moved on to 10GbE, FiberChannel, etc. Now, we sort of kind of got FiberChannel/10Gbe, only in the form of a new I/O with similar performance.
The "trickle down' just has been stalled for the last 4 years. There is now 40 and 100 GbE so 10GbE will start to trickle down now. IMHO FiberChannel is dead in term of separate cards and switches. FC over Ethernet with the same cards/switches as 10GbE is what is largely going to deploy. Thunderbolt isn't going to kill off FC as a distinct physical interconnect, that is already well underway by 10GbE. And higher bandwidths by Infiniband (which as lower latencies that both of those, but costs more.).
Frankly, with 1Gb WiFi coming wired 10GbE is going to have to get more pervasive and cheaper. The same reasons as outiined about when the when points crank up the speed the bandwidth to the edges has to go up too. Eventually wireless traffic has to transition onto wires. Thunderbolt is only an additional competitive reason that 10GbE needs to transition to much lower prices over next couple of years to survive.
But I hardly think FireWire was a failure either, as others seem to imply. It never took off in the mainstream, but why should it?
It did take off in the mainstream. For a while it was very widely used a broad array of video cameras. It is still present on non-as-low-priced-as-possible PCs. The broad based penetration though largely stopped at FW400 though.
The notion of "failure" is largely misplaced on the notion that there has to be "one port to rule them all". That's goofy. It is like proposing that there is one screwdriver ( or one hammer) to rule them all.
Thunderbolt is going to survive and have a viable market. Probably at least as widespread as FW400 eventually got to. Perhaps a bit more if the viability as standard docking station port is widely adopted. But it is not, and never, was a "USB killer". Or a 10GbE killer. Or a FiberChannel killer.
It is likely that the combination of TB and USB 3.0 will snuff off FW ports on PCs over time though.