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Belkin Shows Off Upcoming Thunderbolt Express Dock

Not until 2012.

From Belkin:

(Playa Vista, CA) - September 20, 2011 - Belkin today issued the following statement from Martin Avila, General Manager of Belkin's Core business unit, regarding the first look of its new Thunderbolt Express Dock:

"Belkin is currently developing products that utilize and showcase Thunderbolt's features and speak to our end consumers' needs. We are excited by the attention the sneak peak of our Thunderbolt Express Dock generated at last week's Intel Developers Forum; however the product on display was an early prototype and is not slated to launch until spring 2012."

Please stay tuned for a larger announcement including final pricing and availability information in late 2011. Feel free to contact Leah Polk at leah.polk@belkin.com for any additional questions.
 
MobiusStrip said:
...One of the main reasons to buy this is to address Apple's stupid omission of Ethernet from the Air. There are still plenty of hotels that have only wired connections (I was in one last week, in fact the nicest room I've ever seen in a U.S. hotel). And so what does Apple do? Omit the most universal network connector from the computer that's most likely to be taken on the road.
Click to expand...

Actually, Apple has indeed made a MacBook Air with built in gigabit ethernet. It's called a MacBook Pro.

They had to make it thicker to to accommodate the extra thickness of the ethernet port, and in doing so they then found they had a lot more space to throw in a bunch of other useful things like FireWire and an optical drive...
 
Unfortunately I doubt it will be $50. Thunderbolt is basically like a PCI bridge so you have to put the controllers in the device. If there are USB ports, then there have to be USB controllers. Ethernet, then an ethernet controller, etc etc.

As this has many different ports, I would guess something in the $120-150 range.

Anyhow, thanks for updating me with the press release. Good to know. Spring :rolleyes:
 
tbealmear said:
I still need something with two thunderbolt ports so I can use two external monitors with my MBP. Hopefully a solution comes out soon.
Click to expand...

Well, most thunderbolt monitors should have a port allowing you to daisy chain them - that will work today with the MBP.

If you mean two VGA or DVI monitors then Matrox make boxes like these that will connect to your TB port and give you 2 or 3 ports out.
 
I was so giddy to buy a MBP in Feb.
Then an imac in May.
So ecstatic to get my hands on this future-proofish technology.

But spring?
I could be dead by then.

Also curious how much daisy chaining can really be done, with the maximum throughput being 10Gb/s.

Through one port, could you power the thunderbolt display, this box with 2 firewire raid drives daisy chained + thunderbolt raid drives??

It's good that the 27" imac has 2x thunderbolt in case this does cripple throughput.

They should really consider 2x thunderbolts in the 15" and 17" MBPs.
It's so tiny anyway...
I want a thunderbolt port in my head.
 
Fandongo said:
I was so giddy to buy a MBP in Feb.
Then an imac in May.
So ecstatic to get my hands on this future-proofish technology.

But spring?
I could be dead by then.

Also curious how much daisy chaining can really be done, with the maximum throughput being 10Gb/s.

Through one port, could you power the thunderbolt display, this box with 2 firewire raid drives daisy chained + thunderbolt raid drives??

It's good that the 27" imac has 2x thunderbolt in case this does cripple throughput.

They should really consider 2x thunderbolts in the 15" and 17" MBPs.
It's so tiny anyway...
I want a thunderbolt port in my head.
Click to expand...


10 Gbs is WAY more than enough to support a display and multiple FW800 devices.
 
Thats your biggest issue? Not the $300 price tag? $300 is asinine. LaCie has an esata dock they have announced as well. Should be out in the 1st quarter of this year.
 
Koodauw said:
Thats your biggest issue? Not the $300 price tag? $300 is asinine. LaCie has an esata dock they have announced as well. Should be out in the 1st quarter of this year.
Click to expand...

Lacie's only has eSATA and likely will be in the same ballpark as the Belkin
 
Anyone else find this worrying?

Belkin is usually a/ quick to market and b/ cheap.

What is it about Thunderbolt that's making this device take a whole year to get into production? Why on earth is it going to cost $300?

Worries me that something bad is going on behind the scenes at Intel - and they're having problems rolling out high volume low cost interface chips.
 
firestarter said:
Anyone else find this worrying?

Belkin is usually a/ quick to market and b/ cheap.

What is it about Thunderbolt that's making this device take a whole year to get into production? Why on earth is it going to cost $300?

Worries me that something bad is going on behind the scenes at Intel - and they're having problems rolling out high volume low cost interface chips.
Click to expand...

not really-Bluray/HD-DVD took a long time before pricing settled down-same with prices of discs.

New tech always takes a while for pricing to come down. Don't forget, Thunderbolt is not even 1 year old. By September it will be roughly 18 month s old. Only then will we start to see price drops (we should also see Hard drive prices start to go back to where they were before the floods in Asia)
 
Thanks for posting the price. "Asinine" is a perfect term for it. That is just not going to fly in an era when entire computers can be had for little more than $300.

Holy crap, I just noticed this:

"Includes three USB 2.0 ports"

That's right, not even USB 3. WTF? After all this time?

This product, which should've stood as a nice example of what Thunderbolt's capable of, looks destined to fail hard. And rightfully so.

GJ, Belkin.
 
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