Likelihood of a Thunderbolt > DVI/USB adaptor?

[wharpua]

About to pull the trigger on purchasing a new MBP, for which I'll need to purchase an adaptor of some sort to get my external monitor to work with it. Then it occurred to me - couldn't Thunderbolt support a combined adaptor of both DVI and USB?

Among nomadic laptop users who return to a bigger desk setup, there must be a common desire for fewer connection points between the two. Is it unrealistic to think that a Thunderbolt connection that accommodates both a DVI cable and (an inevitable?) USB hub connection might find an audience?

just curious for people's opinions, I might hold off on getting a MiniDisplay > DVI dongle if this seems like a product that might be out soon.

 

[Eddyisgreat]

I don't think we'll see a dvi + usb solution unless it was available in a modular fashion. I'd expect a usb hub with a displayport passthrough, hence you'll need the appropriate adapter anyway.

 

[Stetrain]

I think thunderbolt will make a great docking port. There's no reason why someone couldn't build a box with DVI, USB, and even ethernet and audio that just used a single thunderbolt cable. The DVI would probably use the displayport signal and the rest could go over the PCI-express bus.

No idea how long it will take for this sort of product to ramp up though.

 

[wharpua]

guess I won't be waiting, then - but it does sound like it has the potential to be the closest thing to a 'laptop dock' that we'll get, this whole Thunderbolt thing

thanks for the replies

 

[macduke]

I could see someone making a 2 or 3 port USB 3.0 hub for ThunderBolt. But it will probably cost over $50.

I've got so many external hard drives that I wish they could even make a USB 2.0 port with display port pass through. The thing that is nice about ThunderBolt is that when you have a 4-port USB 2.0 hub on it, each port would be full-speed, so the other devices on the hub wouldn't slow each other down and saturate the connection. I often have this problem with my 2TB WD Elements external drive. Sometimes it just crawls, and I'm pretty sure it's the limited bus. I have 2 USB ports on my machine and four hubs hooked up (if you include the keyboard). Connecting hubs to other hubs is never a good idea, but necessary for the work I do. I have:

2TB hdd
500GB hdd
500GB hdd
200GB portable hdd (not as often plugged in)
Canon Pro9000 mk II printer
Wacom Intuos tablet
CF Card Adapter
Apple Wired Keyboard (often with flash drives plugged into it)
iPads and iPhones to sync
Spyder calibrator
and more

Putting those hdd on a separate ThunderBolt connection would really clear out some of my speed congestion. Although it might be time for me to start consolidating hdd.

 

[Andra]

There's no reason why someone couldn't build a box with DVI, USB, and even ethernet and audio that just used a single thunderbolt cable.

I'm kind of in the same situation as the original poster (about to buy a new laptop, looking to reduce the numbers of cords). And I'd love a solution like this.
From what I've been reading it should be possible, but I can't find anyone doing it yet.