Notes of Interest on Thunderbolt and MacBook Pro

[AidenShaw]

So what happens when the PCIe bus is updated and/or replaced in the future with something better? Can Thunderclap adapt to future bus changes or will it then become obsolete (i.e. being the PCIe bus in its current form)?

If the motherboard abandons PCIe, then the mobo controller for ThunderPort would need to change. It could still output PCIe signals on the cable and map them to the new mobo interface.

Busses tend to change slowly, and overlap for many years. Many motherboards still have PCI slots for older cards.

If ThunderBolt can mix DisplayPort and PCIe signals on one set of wires, a higher bandwidth version could even multiplex a third protocol on the wires, so that the new native bus could be used in peripherals.

One thing that I wouldn't expect to see is for TB to become as cheap and ubiquitous as USB. There are too many costs embedded in the chain.

 

[nprkuhn]

New Macbook Pro 17" battery capacity is Down by 30.7% !!!!

When you look into the system properties

you see the Complete Charge Capacity (mAh) of :

12691 mAh in the mid-2010 Macbook Pro 17" Core i7 2.66GHz
8653 mAh in the early-2011 Macbook Pro 17" Core i7 2.3GHz Quadcore

Check on your systems and compare with older version I am sure you will find the same kind of values.

That's -30.7% on battery capacity so going from 10 hours to 7 hours makes sense.

I just found out about that opening my new MBP Quadcore tonight and I am really upset : how can they reduce battery capacity while increasing horsepower !! It doesn't make any sense

I made the move because of Thunderbolt and QuadCore Horsepower, I was fine with graphic cards.

Now I am wondering if 2010 MBP battery's would fit into a 2011 MBP :
DOES ANYONE KNOW ? PLEASE HELP.

THANKS

You're a pussie. They did.

http://www.apple.com/macbook/specs.html

Just in case you were wondering, this was previously a 10h battery. Either they went to every 2010 macbook owner's home and changed the battery or they actually lowered their own estimate of the battery's longevity.

 

[Denarius]

One thing that I wouldn't expect to see is for TB to become as cheap and ubiquitous as USB. There are too many costs embedded in the chain.

Well, given that USB 3 is being incorporated into intel's next generation chipset and they've stated that they view TBolt and USB3 as complementary technologies, I think you're right. If that's Intel's attitude then I'd say USB 3 on Apple machines is virtually inevitable.