Haswell not coming before Q3 2013?

[AdonisSMU]

Well it worked for Apple's small selection of peripherals. They had the thunderbolt display and the promise pegasus raid, which can both run off a single port. It's just that outside of Apple's small range of peripheral devices, it's not that useful. In August of 2011, people were still complaining that Intel hadn't released an official SDK. I just don't see any sweeping changes in the near future.

Intel is dropping the ball here...I dont understand what the problem is?

 

[thekev]

Intel is dropping the ball here...I dont understand what the problem is?

I just said that it works in the way Apple wants to use it. It's just not necessarily ready for prime time. It's not even included on most non-Macs.

 

[AdonisSMU]

I just said that it works in the way Apple wants to use it. It's just not necessarily ready for prime time. It's not even included on most non-Macs.

I just dont understand why Apple is using beta software on macs and making users pay higher prices just so they can be used as guinea pigs.

 

[thekev]

I just dont understand why Apple is using beta software on macs and making users pay higher prices just so they can be used as guinea pigs.

Again it provided functionality that Apple wanted for their own peripheral devices. They got docking station functionality and the ability to offer a consumer grade raid solution for their notebook and imac lines. It worked for them. The rest of it was kool-aid. It should only have been a selling point if you wanted one of two accessories. Otherwise it still provided displayport functionality. I should also mention that it's not necessarily beta if run the available accessories in a stable manner. It is reasonably stable. It's just not that useful. A final point would be that you didn't really give up anything for it. Without thunderbolt you'd still have a mini displayport connector there for external displays. The pricing most likely wouldn't be any different. The profit margin would just be slightly higher. 2010 machines used mini displayport. 2011 they went to thunderbolt using the same connector with additional embedded circuitry.

 

[skaertus]

Again it provided functionality that Apple wanted for their own peripheral devices. They got docking station functionality and the ability to offer a consumer grade raid solution for their notebook and imac lines. It worked for them. The rest of it was kool-aid. It should only have been a selling point if you wanted one of two accessories. Otherwise it still provided displayport functionality. I should also mention that it's not necessarily beta if run the available accessories in a stable manner. It is reasonably stable. It's just not that useful. A final point would be that you didn't really give up anything for it. Without thunderbolt you'd still have a mini displayport connector there for external displays. The pricing most likely wouldn't be any different. The profit margin would just be slightly higher. 2010 machines used mini displayport. 2011 they went to thunderbolt using the same connector with additional embedded circuitry.

Apple is pushing Thunderbolt because it probably has some degree of control over the developing process and/or the technology uses some of its patents. Perhaps it's not a matter of functionality.

 

[thekev]

Apple is pushing Thunderbolt because it probably has some degree of control over the developing process and/or the technology uses some of its patents. Perhaps it's not a matter of functionality.

Well yeah, I mentioned that it worked for what they had in mind. They got a docking station and raid out of it so far. They were able to run it over a port (mini displayport) that was already included in the design. They have one patent there, and intel isn't completely tied to its use. They could opt to go with something different.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini_DisplayPort

Wiki is quite accurate on this one, so I'm using it.

Shortly after announcing the Mini DisplayPort, Apple announced that it would license the connector technology with no fee.[5] Apple reserves the right to void the license should the licensee "commence an action for patent infringement against Apple".

Mini displayport is actually pretty decent. It's a very small port. It doesn't support a couple things, such as 10 bit displayport. Apple doesn't care as they have no intention of supporting that anyway. It worked with one or two cards under Leopard. Since then it doesn't work at all. This kind of annoys me. It almost makes me want to run bootcamp, but not quite. I have everything basically set the way I want it in OSX, although I'm considering rolling back to SL. Even with 16GB of ram, Lion is way too hungry. The ssd helps somewhat, but certain things require real memory. Some of the things I use have the potential to be memory hogs, and I prefer to concern myself with memory management more than necessary.