Questions about Thunderbolt...

[applegenius83]

So I hear thunderbolt is 10 Gbps transfer, but it has 2 channels and they are each Bi-Directional. That gives a total of 40 total Gbps bandwidth? Does that mean that in theory it is possible to be transferring 20 Gbps with one device over two channels? I know that's insane speed, but I'm thinking graphics cards here.
I've seen the ViDock: http://www.villagetronic.com/vidock/index.html where you're able to connect external GPUs, I'm really wondering if that's going to be possible over thunderbolt in the future. Would 10 Gbps be a bottleneck on the GPUs? Do GPUs, although they are connected to PCI x16 which is much faster, actually harness all that PCI speed? Or only for graphics intensive software/gaming?
Also, if I were to daisy chain thunderbolt SSDs or HDDs, does that mean one uses channel 1 and the other uses channel 2? Can you still get 10 Gbps (or 20 multichannel) with each device?
Thanks in advance.

 

[pdjudd]

I believe each channel is for the daisy chaining and not going to be useful for one device.

 

[8CoreWhore]

Actually, 1 Thunderbolt port has 2 channels - each with 10Gbps. So, a total of 20Gbps.

Regarding external GPU, it is PCI-E, so yes, an external GPU can be used when they add TB.

The new larger iMacs have 2 Thunderbolt ports. Wowzers.

 

[rnelan7]

You are mixing up bits and bytes. Eight bits make one byte which is Big B and bit is small b. Thunderbolt is 10Gb so it is actually 1.25GB per second.

 

[applegenius83]

You are mixing up bits and bytes. Eight bits make one byte which is Big B and bit is small b. Thunderbolt is 10Gb so it is actually 1.25GB per second.

Actually, I never did. In my post I only said Gbps, meaning gigabits per second.

Actually, 1 Thunderbolt port has 2 channels - each with 10Gbps. So, a total of 20Gbps.

Regarding external GPU, it is PCI-E, so yes, an external GPU can be used when they add TB.

The new larger iMacs have 2 Thunderbolt ports. Wowzers.

So would I be able to harness that kind of power with an external GPU?? TWO externals on the iMac? Daisy chain external graphics cards? Wowzers is right!!