Promise Technology Debuts $249 Thunderbolt 3 Dock With 5 USB-A Ports, 2 TB3 Ports and SD Card Slot

[Michael Scrip]

To be fair, TB3 is a bit more impressive as a TB2 replacement, but as a replacement for USB-A, USB-C is a big "so what".

This is true.

But actually I like where it's going. I believe in the idea of "one port to rule them all"

The USB-A port reached its limit. Oh they were able to cram in more pins to make it faster (USB 3.0)... but it was still only destined for certain uses.

Of course there are plenty of devices that plug into USB-A. We've had 20 years of USB-A plugs. Whaddya expect?

But my point is... your computer had one set of holes for USB devices... and another set of holes for monitors (HDMI/DP) and other high-throughput devices (Thunderbolt)

I can see what Apple is going for here. But it will be an uphill battle with all the existing USB-A plugs out in the world.

I think Apple should have put two USB-A ports and two Thunderbolt 3 ports on these new Macbooks. That would have helped a lot. Give it a little transition period.

Instead... they went "all in" on Thunderbolt 3/USB-C... while people are still actively using USB-A devices. So we've got dongles and replacement cables to deal with now.

But I still think it'll be worth it in the end.

 

[theluggage]

But actually I like where it's going.

...however, "where its going" requires USb3.2 (2 usb 3.1 streams over a single USB-C cable so its actually better than a USB-A port) and DisplayPort 1.4 (so USB-C DP alt mode could support 4k@60Hz alongside USB 3 data, and 5k) - neither of which are ever going to work on your 2017 Mac.

I believe in the idea of "one port to rule them all"

Why? Other than on the smallest of devices where there's only room for a single port (and which will probably be all-wireless in a year or two)? On powerful laptops and desktops, you're just creating a pointless bottleneck by forcing otherwise independent systems (power, display, data i/o) to share a limited number of physical ports... especially now we have 4k/5k and soon 8k video with huge bandwidth requirements that really deserve their own port. Oh, and of course USB-C really dropped the ball by unifying the connector at the expense of creating a combinatorial explosion of cable types with varying bandwidths, power capacities and protocol support...

I think Apple should have put two USB-A ports and two Thunderbolt 3 ports on these new Macbooks. That would have helped a lot. Give it a little transition period. Instead... they went "all in" on Thunderbolt 3/USB-C... while people are still actively using USB-A devices. So we've got dongles and replacement cables to deal with now.

Absolutely - and its great that they went that way on the iMac (although the iMac could also do with a straight DisplayPort 1.4 connector as well).

Thing is, the majority of new USB-C peripherals are still only USB 3.1gen1 and, frequently, come with a USB-A adapter cable. At the peripheral end the USB-C connector is a great improvement over the mess of USB-A, USB-B, mini- and micro- USB (especially the fugly USBB/3 and microUSB/3 connectors) - so the rational way to transition is to gradually replace your peripherals with USB-C until you have a critical mass and then change your computer. Apple are doing it back-to-front.

 

[shamino]

The problem is that Apple is pushing it on powerful laptops and desktops, with plenty of space for ports, where combining unrelated display, power and I/O functions into a very limited number of shared ports is just an unnecessary complication.

Apple has been chanting the mantra of "one cable to rule them all" for a very long time now, especially with regard to video cables.

We all know about TB3, which can theoretically support everything (PCIe, USB, video, power), and TB/TB2 (PCIe and video).

You may also remember ADC, which combines DVI video, USB and power (this time for a computer to power a CRT display). And before that, the HDI-45 connector, which combined audio in/out, video in/out and ADB into a single proprietary connector so certain model displays (featuring headphone, microphone, camera and ADB ports) could connect with one cable.

And then we all remember the first iMac that replaced many standard ports (ADB, serial, SCSI) with USB 1.1, even though it really wasn't fast enough for the job. And how some models even eliminated the headphone/microphone jacks for USB as well. And when they realized it isn't fast enough, introducing FireWire, until they could in turn replace it (with faster USB and Thunderbolt)

So I'm not all that surprised about yet another uber-connector from Apple that promises to replace every single port (and in the case of one model, with only a single port!) It's a nice user-friendly vision, if everything can use the same connector and plug in to any port. But we're not there yet. I suspect it will be less painful in a few years, just as the iMac's USB port changed from a drawback to a benefit as peripheral makers gradually transitioned over to it.

 

[jimthing]

Can anyone list 4+ bay TB3 storage devices?
(AFAICT, there are next to none viable ones; a year since the first TB3 MBPs were released.)

Promises R-range of super-expensive hw raid (noisy as hell, and for pros with loads of money only). Akitio 4-bay sw raid boxes in 2.5" & 3.5" versions, aren't exactly mainstream (also crap fans, that mean they're still loud).

How bad is the latency difference between USB and TB? For a networked device (eg. a box connected to a Mac accessible from several other devices simultaneously), does it make a difference?

Why is the NAS (typically max only 1Gbit) market booming, while the DAS (TB3 up to 40Gbit) market is completely failing (just like TB1/2 did, TBH)?
It can't all about licensing (supposedly ending late-2018 – another 12 months away!)?

 

[Michael Scrip]

Why is the NAS (typically max only 1Gbit) market booming, while the DAS (TB3 up to 40Gbit) market is completely failing (just like TB1/2 did, TBH)?

I think the answer is simple...

There are 1.5 billion computers on Earth that can connect to a plain ol' NAS... while there are only around 100 million Macs on Earth with ThunderBolt capabilities (and even fewer that are ThunderBolt 3 at the moment) that can attach to a TB DAS.

And while there are more and more Windows laptops being released with ThunderBolt 3 ports these days... the total addressable market for ThunderBolt 3 devices is still very small.

Even if you add up all the computers with ThunderBolt 3... how many of them would need a DAS with 40Gbit speeds? That's an even smaller market.

It should be no surprise why the regular NAS market is booming while the TB3 market is not.

Can anyone list 4+ bay TB3 storage devices?

Here's a video review detailing two TB3 DAS boxes.

They're fast... but VERY niche.