In the hopes that someone in Apple reads these forums to get ideas....
I would soooo buy this.
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CES 2012: MSI Shows Off Thunderbolt-Connected External GPU
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In the hopes that someone in Apple reads these forums to get ideas....
I would soooo buy this.
+1
Although, only if you were able to change the gfxboard yourself. I have the same problem in my late 2009 iMac - the processor (2.8 i7) is still great and handles everything I need with ease, and the screen is great, but I wouldn't mind a new GPU. Screens usually lasts for a lot longer than a GPU, I don't wanna have to throw out my TB display and get a new one every 2 years or so. In my opinion, a separate box like this (that works in OS X) is a better solution.
Exactly. People scoff at thunderbolt, but few realize that its a connector for almost anything. and the ability to daisy chain means that you could have a custom built suite of printers, displays, external GPUs, Raid towers, etc... and just take your macbook air to a desk, plug in ONE cable, and voila.
It would be pretty cool to get home and plug in your MBA into a lousy $250+ official Apple 5770.
Not to mention the wide selection of supported graphics card at reasonable prices.
The current external GPU solutions for Mac only support Mac Pro graphics cards under OS X, right?
I would too, if there wasn't a significant price increase over the current model.
Actually though, it would potentially make the monitor worthless in a couple of years though. There would need to be a way to run pass-through, then.
daisy chains suck
But only six in the chain - you've listed 4 items in the plural for each, which won't work. (Although to be fair, the notion of a T-Bolt printer is a bit absurd - USB 3.0 would be overkill for any printer that costs less than a Lexus.)
The fluff pieces from Intel say that T-Bolt hubs and switches are possible - wake me when one is announced. (And nine months later, wake me again when one ships....)
But only six in the chain - you've listed 4 items in the plural for each, which won't work. (Although to be fair, the notion of a T-Bolt printer is a bit absurd - USB 3.0 would be overkill for any printer that costs less than a Lexus.)
The fluff pieces from Intel say that T-Bolt hubs and switches are possible - wake me when one is announced. (And nine months later, wake me again when one ships....)
I'll buy one for a bit more than some others here. The ability of this thing to expand the use of my MBP is awesome. If I could get even medium/medium-high graphics in current games (Skyrim, BF3 for example) I'd pay $200+. Of course, hope they can release one that's easy to upgrade the GPU.
Apple already does sell this. It's called an iMac. You can get one starting at $1699. Not only that but it includes a way faster quad-core processor and an optional 3.5" hard drive as well. You just restart your MacBook Air while holding down the T key, connect it to the iMac with a TB cable, power up the iMac while holding down the Option key, select the icon for the MBA's SSD, and away you go.
I'm curious why Intel's fluff says 7 devices and Apple's says 6. I wonder if anyone has been able to track down and afford more than 6 Thunderbolt devices at the same time to test this out...
As for TB switches, they're quite feasible, although I still think the device limit would stand. Also, from a technological standpoint, for an 8-port TB switch you're looking at the equivalent of a 16-port 10GbE switch. Which, if you care to price them out, are very expensive.
I think that's part of the reason for the daisy chain architecture on technologies like this. A 2-port TB controller probably adds about $50 to the retail price of a device, and then you have the $50 cable, so you're shelling out $100 to add another device to the chain. That's somehow more palatable than dropping $800+ in one shot on an 8 port switch.
It's like replacing Chevy Suburban with five KIA Sportage. Some may like it but it's not the same.
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That's what docking stations are for and those were available for decades. TB will work too. I am just saying that instead of waiting for a miracle one could have just bought a PC.
Not with Thunderbolt in its current form. It just extends PCI-E connectivity to external devices. You cannot connect multiple computers as a cluster via TB, not anytime soon anyway.
Well, most people aren't ready to take a mortgage in order to buy an external hard drive with Thunderbolt connectivity. The prices are simply ridiculous at the moment.
I didn't know that. If I'm understanding correctly, all hardware used will be the iMac's (CPU, GPU, RAM, ports, superdrive, isight, speakers), but it will boot from the MBA's SSD and recognize the iMac's HDD as a secondary drive?
And everything (video, sound, data) will go through the thunderbolt cable? That's pretty awesome.
How fast would data transfer from the MBA's SSD be considering that part of the Thunderbolt bandwidth would be used just for the monitor part?
Thanks.
I had no idea this worked either - that's pretty neat. Does it only work over TB, or is there a simple way to boot from a MBA even with the older iMacs (ethernet cable maybe)?
Anyway, about your questions - if this works, you're running everything on the iMac and just booting from the MBA's harddrive. Everything is running on the iMac hardware, so only the files you read are transferred (no sound, monitor image or similar needs to be sent). Since the speed of the MBA SSD is about 250Mb/s and thunderbolt easily handles many times that speed, it shouldn't be a problem.
Although some have noted bandwidth limitations there is the possibility that such an external GPU could be useful for operations that are optimised for OpenCL, CUDA or some other form of technology where additional computational power can be delivered via some additional external hardware. If such is a viable solution then what one could possibly have in such a device is the ability to extend the life of MacBook's, iMac's etc. for longer.
With that being said what I'd love to see is an thunderbolt to USB3 or thunderbolt to eSATA hub which would really make things awesome and if Apple made them and sold them via their store it would be a great money spinner for them (Apple).
Edit: I noticed there is a Thunderbolt -> Express Slot where one can purchase a USB3 card but I'm sure there is a much more elegant solution that could be provided.
With that being said what I'd love to see is an thunderbolt to USB3 or thunderbolt to eSATA hub which would really make things awesome and if Apple made them and sold them via their store it would be a great money spinner for them (Apple).
Edit: I noticed there is a Thunderbolt -> Express Slot where one can purchase a USB3 card but I'm sure there is a much more elegant solution that could be provided.
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