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Acer and Asus to Provide Momentum to Thunderbolt Adoption

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Apr 12, 2001
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IDG News reports that Acer and Asus have announced that they will begin adopting the new Thunderbolt connectivity standard next year, shifting momentum toward the platform developed in a collaboration between Intel and Apple and first released to the public in new MacBook Pro models back in February. Apple has since brought Thunderbolt to its entire Mac lineup with the exception of the Mac Pro, which has yet to be updated since the platform debuted.
A Windows PC with Thunderbolt technology was demonstrated onstage during a keynote address by Mooly Eden, Intel's general manager of the PC client group, at the Intel Developer Forum being held in San Francisco. Solid-state drives from Intel were connected to the PC and transferred four uncompressed videos at 700 megabytes per second.

Thunderbolt has been viewed as an alternative to USB 3.0, but as the technology was exclusively on Macs, only a few peripherals such as storage drives supported the interconnect. The adoption of Thunderbolt by device makers could grow when Acer and Asus adopt the technology in PCs.
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Concerns about whether Thunderbolt would become a widely-adopted standard gained strength back in May when HP announced that it would be sticking with USB 3.0 and not adopting Thunderbolt. HP has of course since announced that it will be exiting the PC business.

While Apple had a headstart on Thunderbolt adoption, Intel has been pushing forward to speed adoption of the standard by providing partners with developer kits to help them build products using the platform. Intel has also committed to supporting Thunderbolt alongside USB 3.0 in its next-generation Ivy Bridge processor platform, making it easier for manufacturers to embrace the technology.

Article Link: Acer and Asus to Provide Momentum to Thunderbolt Adoption
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2011/09/14/acer-and-asus-to-provide-momentum-to-thunderbolt-adoption/
I hope this is true. Hopefully Toshiba will come on board at some point too, as they're the only PC competitor to Apple not losing market share.
 
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Hopufully this isn't too little too late
 
basesloaded190 said:
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Hopufully this isn't too little too late
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Doubt it. Thunderbolt hasn't been around for even a year yet. Two PC manufacturers and Apple is probably enough at this point to get a decent amount of device manufacturers to come on board, at which point thunderbolt will look more enticing to the laggards. Only time will tell.
 
Good to hear. Really don't see why USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt can't co-exist. Thunderbolt is like Firewire with a jet engine on the back, and USB 3.0 continues to be the slower but cheaper and more flexible port. They both have their advantages depending on the device to be connected.
 
Biolizard said:
Good to hear. Really don't see why USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt can't co-exist. Thunderbolt is like Firewire with a jet engine on the back, and USB 3.0 continues to be the slower but cheaper and more flexible port. They both have their advantages depending on the device to be connected.
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Thunderbolt is by far more flexible. You can connect anything to thunderbolt that you could connect to a PCIe port internally. There really are no disadvantages to thunderbolt besides lack of physical backwards compatibility with USB.
 
Oh Thank GOD.

Now we can expect a couple TB peripherals in a couple years when ACER and Asus depute their stuff.

Gives me a few years to save up for a TB to firewire adapter as I know it's expensive :)
 
DESNOS said:
There really are no disadvantages to thunderbolt besides lack of physical backwards compatibility with USB.
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That in itself is a huge disadvantage. Even something as mainstream as firewire, there is just nothing out there in terms of numbers compared to USB
 
I don't understand why people are worried about thunderbolt adoptation, pc manufacturers are simply just waiting for ivy bridge next year, cuz ivy bridge natively supports that... At this point has intel released the the stuff to manufacturers to make thnderbolt?

Think of it this way: thunderbolt will launch next year. Apple got it early becas use they helped develop it. And apple products have longer refresh cycles.
 
This is good news, and entirely predictable. Intel is being silent, but I would not be surprised at all if Thunderbolt becomes a required part of the Ultrabook spec next year when Ivy Bridge is released with native Thunderbolt (and USB 3.0) support. Apple products will get USB 3.0, and other manufacturers will get Thunderbolt. Both will coexist. Thunderbolt is far better for video capture (several TB video capture devices were announced yesterday at IDF), while USB 3.0 is better for inexpensive flash drives and regular peripherals.
 
DESNOS said:
Thunderbolt is by far more flexible. You can connect anything to thunderbolt that you could connect to a PCIe port internally. There really are no disadvantages to thunderbolt besides lack of physical backwards compatibility with USB.
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I would consider the lack of TB peripherals a big disadvantage to USB3. Then when they do come out the cost will be another big disadvantage to USB3. I keep saying it and will get all negative votes from fangirls but in its present form with the lack of anything to take advantage of TB's speed, its just another firewire. By the time firewire drives came down in cost it already lost the war to USB, which is really too bad.
 
Outrigger said:
That in itself is a huge disadvantage. Even something as mainstream as firewire, there is just nothing out there in terms of numbers compared to USB
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You are not getting it. You can have USB ports from a Thunderbolt breakout hub.

In a sense, USB has become a subset of thunderbolt. Thunderbolt encompasses display port, USB and PCI.
 
DESNOS said:
. There really are no disadvantages to thunderbolt .
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Cost? Pretty sure USB3 versions will be much cheaper i.e. USB3 2.5" HDD caddy is $10, I bet a thunderbolt one won't cost that little for years and years to come
 
Outrigger said:
That in itself is a huge disadvantage. Even something as mainstream as firewire, there is just nothing out there in terms of numbers compared to USB
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On the plus side Thunderbolt IS backwards compatible with DisplayPort, which in turn makes it BC with DVI, HDMI, and VGA. This means it could take the place of any one of these ports on video cards and such, with an adapter included to compensate (similar to how VGA is often handled now).
 
The problem is, will the connector be the same?

Apple's got ownership of the mini display-port connection, and it's only usable under their terms.

Apple needs to let the port become a standard. Until then I don't think it's really going to take off as much as USB 3.0 will.
 
I seriously hope this technology hits the Mac Pro BEFORE asus starts shipping their motherboards...
 
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but are they using a minidisplayport connector like apple or a usb connector like sony. my bet is usb then we will need yet another adaptor
 
RoninTheDog said:
The problem is, will the connector be the same?

Apple's got ownership of the mini display-port connection, and it's only usable under their terms.

Apple needs to let the port become a standard. Until then I don't think it's really going to take off as much as USB 3.0 will.
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No they didn't - MDP is part of VESA now since they adopted it.
 
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