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Sonnet Announces Thunderbolt Dock With Internal Drive Bay and Blu-Ray Drive

Existing thunderbolt ports

If you have a USB3 Mac, then what you want is a regular USB3 hub.

I agree that a TB-USB3 box would be useful - but only to those of us with 2011 Macs with Thunderbolt but no USB3. That's probably too limited a market - and shrinking as the people with deeper pockets upgrade their 2-year-old Macs - for anybody to make an affordable one.



There are at least 30 million macs out there with thunderbolt ports and no USB3. I have never seen the question seriously asked why this gap in demand has never been filled. This has cost apple millions of iMac sales, because it drove many of us to the Mac mini for USB3, and that only arrived seven months after intel included the capability in sandy bridge, and only years after the first macs with thunderbolt ports shipped. Thunderbolt is a worthless interface unless SSD drives are on the other end of it. For 98% of us it is like buying a Ferrari for commuting in heavy traffic. Apple is no longer a serious computer company. I wish they would sell/license the OS to someone that cared and get the hell out of the hardware business.
 
Nice Mac Mini companion

For those that wanted an optical drive, an extra HDD bay, and some additional ports, this thing is a great companion to a Mac Mini. Just wish it actually looked more like one (a color match would be fine, I don't mind the box itself)
 
utekineir said:
You're making fun of a high school kid on a tech forum.

I'll just let the irony sink in.
Click to expand...
How's that ironic?
Not making fun of anyone here, but I'm always amazed by people who buy the most expensive gadgets around and then complain that music/movies/games are too expensive...
 
a0me said:
How's that ironic?
Not making fun of anyone here, but I'm always amazed by people who buy the most expensive gadgets around and then complain that music/movies/games are too expensive...
Click to expand...

Spending beyond your means and complaining about what you don't have is human nature.


I want 250 posts to peek in the market place, whats your excuse for trolling this thread?
 
If it ever comes to Europe within the end of the year and sells for max 300€, I will definitely get it. Nice companion for my Air, just to leave in my office and plug it in when I am at work.
 
theluggage said:
If you have a USB3 Mac, then what you want is a regular USB3 hub.
Click to expand...

I've got 5 of them. Not a single one works due to OS X having a borked USB 3.0 driver. It's widely documented and Apple has made no attempt at fixing it.
 
The problem with these devices is the cost to license thunderbolt. That's why you're seeing these devices with unneeded options. They're adding them on to help justify the cost and make it seem amenable. I would like to see simple things, like maybe T-bolt to USB3 (only) without all the other crap that's not needed.
 
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ed724 said:
The problem with these devices is the cost to license thunderbolt. That's why you're seeing these devices with unneeded options. They're adding them on to help justify the cost and make it seem amenable. I would like to see simple things, like maybe T-bolt to USB3 (only) without all the other crap that's not needed.
Click to expand...

There are "simple" ones such as the Apple "Thunderbolt to FireWire" and "Thunderbolt to Gb Ethernet" dongles. :)

However, USB-3 may present some power issues with the ability to supply the higher 900ma/port current required by the USB-3 specifications from the limited 550ma @ 18v (10 watt max) power available at the Thunderbolt port without an external power supply. I have experienced problems with trying to pull large SSD level power from the Thunderbolt port, where USB-3 has shown no problems so far.
 
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itickings said:
I don't think it does what you think it does...

It doesn't turn one TB port into two ports, it allows you to connect the docking station to the computer and to connect something else to the docking station. Daisy chaining, not splitting. You don't get extra ports.
Click to expand...

whoops, I could of sworn I counted three ports.
 
Well I pulled the trigger on one of the Blu-Ray models without the hard drive (I'll bring my own on that). I really wanted it for the eSATA Multiplier ports and this will be perfect for my 2013 rMBP (waiting to buy the next model before I pull the trigger).
 
fusion drive

Now what this needs is a roll your own fusion drive.... (A program to do this with a GUI would be even better) :):apple::)
 
Nightarchaon said:
You cant do that, Thunderbolt needs to be in series, so its one device to one device to one device, .

The only way to make a Thunderbolt "HUB/Splitter" would be if the hub or splitter contained a full new Thunderbolt controller (as on the motherboard of your Mac/PC now) so it would be VERY expensive
Click to expand...

Eh? There is a full Thunderbolt controller in every TB device.

Some are capable of running two ports (each with data and video). Some capable of running one physical port ( with data and video ). Lastly there is one model not that can take just one TB channel (typically) is is useful for dongles ( chain ending devices ).

There are no TB controllers capable of running 3 (or more) physical ports. Neither in PCs or in peripherals. The TB devices that you see with two ports largely have the same controller as you would see inside most computers at this point. ( some ultra thin computers have the one physical port controller since that is all they have to keep the power consumption down. )

So there are no "splitters". It is a switched network of daisy chained devices. There are not mutlibroadcast "hubs". That isn't how the network works. It is highly doubtful they could keep the switching latency down to a minimum if TB switches weren't just making "is this for me yes/no?" (yes, keep packet. no, pass it on. ) decisions.


If have a single port computer with the single phys port controller from the current gen what you need is either

a. At least one TB display (docking station with integrated LCD panel). In short, a TB device that will "peel" one of the encoded DP streams off while forwarding the rest of the data/video down the chain.

b. A docking station that has a DVI/HMDI out but also two TB ports. ( not any of those around**. ) Again it peels off one of the video streams and forwards the rest.

Apple primarily wants folks to choose a. since they sell that. :)


** an earlier Belkin docking station had some video out but the current ones have two TB ports but no video out. I suspect there is a complexity in certification issue that folks don't want to deal with to do both. Apple is motivated because can sell two $999 devices.

Remember, Thunderbolt is just a stupid name for an external PCI Express bus,
Click to expand...

Actually it is not. First, there is a external PCI-e standard already out there that predates Thunderbolt. Second, the data isn't transmitted in PCI-e protocol but in TB protocol. So it isn't the same. It also doesn't just transmit PCI-e data. It also encodes DisplayPort protocol data and transports it too typically on a separate TB channel so less drama about an isochronous transmission issues and latency.


do not think of it as a super fast USB or Firewire type connection, its not, its a SLOW PCI Express type connection.
Click to expand...

It isn't slow in respect to those two protocols. The think about Thunderbolt is that it only talks to Thunderbolt. Its only job it is to transport signals between boxes and then it converts back to the "native" protocol that was transported.

Inside of a computer there are controllers that speak PCI-e on one side and the port specific protocol on the other (e.g., SATA-to-PCI-e USB-to-PCI-e, Firewire-to-PCI-e , etc.). Thunderbolts job is just to connect those remote controller's signals to the "master" PCI-e hub inside the personal computer. Same thing with video only largely in the other direction. Pump Video data out to remote DisplayPort "sinks" that are hooked to a physical display.
 
StellarSoul said:
Was excited to read about the built in blu-ray drive. But then I remembered that OSX doesn't allow native blu-ray playback.
Click to expand...

From 2009....
Blu-ray playback without ripping now available

Works. Not for every disc - for many though. Was able to start a movie faster on the Mac than waiting for all the crap to load in a consumer blu-ray player from Sony.

I want one of those Sonnet boxes!
 
One issue I have had with my TB display and an external drive is that the drive needs to be ejected before pulling the computer out of the chain. I have a Thunderbolt display at my desk and I use that with my laptop closed. My ideal solution is just to pull the TB cable and power plug and then I can walk away. But if you have a drive in the TB chain, you cannot do that without getting an ejection error message.

I wonder if this new doc somehow handles this. I doubt it unfortunately.

Still, the features vs. price of this unit are compelling.
 
utekineir said:
you allready have 2 thunderbolt ports. Dock--> monitor, 2nd tb port to monitor

you also have hdmi out, and there are various adapters on the market.
Click to expand...

You miss the point and the point of a dock. 1 wire to the computer. Only 1.
So it needs 3 thunderbolt .
 
rmwebs said:
I've got 5 of them. Not a single one works due to OS X having a borked USB 3.0 driver. It's widely documented and Apple has made no attempt at fixing it.
Click to expand...

Well, that's not the fault of Thunderbolt peripheral makers... and a Thunderbolt-to-USB3 adapter would use the same driver.
 
theluggage said:
Well, that's not the fault of Thunderbolt peripheral makers... and a Thunderbolt-to-USB3 adapter would use the same driver.
Click to expand...

I dont recall saying it was the fault of the Thunderbolt peripheral makers...It's Apples cockup, just like the broken HDMI port drivers in the rMBP.
 
mcalevy said:
There are at least 30 million macs out there with thunderbolt ports and no USB3. I have never seen the question seriously asked why this gap in demand has never been filled.
Click to expand...

Probably because folks can count more accurately. Apple only sells under 20M a year now. There was roughly a year and a several months of sales with the Thunderbolt/USB 2.0 Sandy Bridge combo. The problem you're count of 30 is that is missing the huge rush before the TB introduction (FYQ1 '11). Thunderbolt (TB) was introduced on the natural dip of Mac Sales.

26-10-2012-10-00-27.jpg

[ from story on Apple's Q4 2012 hardware sales. Note that Apple's Q1 2012 is actually last calendar Q of 2011. http://www.zdnet.com/apple-q4-2012-hardware-sales-by-the-numbers-7000006435/ ]

So in calendar year 2011 Apple was at a under 18M run rate. No way a year and half of a rate roughly around 18M is going to come out to 30M.


This has cost apple millions of iMac sales, because it drove many of us to the Mac mini for USB3, and that only arrived seven months after intel included the capability in sandy bridge,
Click to expand...

A. the Intel IO Hub chipset that incorporated USB 3.0 was delivered with Ivy Bridge (the 2012 models) not Sandy Bridge (2011 ).

B. There was no several month gap between Mini and iMac. The 2011 Mini and iMac both had USB 2.0

May 2011 iMac ( http://support.apple.com/kb/SP623 ) USB 2.0 + TB
July 2011 Mini ( http://support.apple.com/kb/SP632 ) USB 2.0 + TB


Late 2012 iMac ( http://support.apple.com/kb/SP665 ) USB 3.0 + TB ( about 18 months )
Late 2012 Mini ( http://support.apple.com/kb/SP659 ) USB 3.0 + TB ( about 15 months )

There was only about a month were mini had USB 3.0 and iMac didn't. Apple openly stated in the FYQ1 2013 quarterly report that iMac sales were down around 770K so it is highly doubtful that millions diverted to the Mini.
If talking millions of sales revenue, not selling any iMacs at all during the transition probably "cost" more , temporarily, than any diversion to the Mini.

the laptops which dominate the Mac numbers all cycled on about 16 months on MBP and in less than year, 11 months, on the MBA.

and only years after the first macs with thunderbolt ports shipped.
Click to expand...

Years? There are none close to 20 months let alone 24 month gap.

Thunderbolt is a worthless interface unless SSD drives are on the other end of it.
Click to expand...

Only if fixated on using it as a direct attach storage connectivity. Thunderbolts utility is driven by multiple protocols being multiplexed onto a single cord. If only running a single fixed protocol then it isn't cost effective. (e.g., if only running SATA not any faster than eSATA. )

For 98% of us it is like buying a Ferrari for commuting in heavy traffic.
Click to expand...

Completely misses the utility of TB. It isn't for drag racing single devices with single protocols.



There is no huge missing gap consumers. Folks with a USB 3.0 port on a portable Mac will still probably want a docking station with USB 3.0. The USB 3.0 enabled docking station is more so the market of all the mobile TB devices. The Mini and iMac folks stuck with USB 2.0 can ride on the bow wave of a market those folks create. It is actually here, but to large extent pragmatically needed to wait until Apple itself as an OS vendor started to deploy USB 3.0 (and xHCI ) drivers. It is a software and hardware issue.
 
deconstruct60 said:
There is no huge missing gap consumers. Folks with a USB 3.0 port on a portable Mac will still probably want a docking station with USB 3.0. The USB 3.0 enabled docking station is more so the market of all the mobile TB devices. The Mini and iMac folks stuck with USB 2.0 can ride on the bow wave of a market those folks create. It is actually here, but to large extent pragmatically needed to wait until Apple itself as an OS vendor started to deploy USB 3.0 (and xHCI ) drivers. It is a software and hardware issue.
Click to expand...

I am quoting this because it is spot on. I am buying a 2013 rMBP when they come out. I have also pre-ordered the Sonnet docking station. Why? Because I want to have two cables to worry about when I want to use my desktop: Power and Data (in this case Thunderbolt). I want my monitor, external hard drives, keyboard, mouse, ETHERNET all plugged into the docking station, so I don't have to individually hook each one up (okay so the hard drives, keyboard and mouse could be on a USB 3.0 HUB, but that only reduces cabling by a couple).

If one has never used a docking station, they wouldn't understand. It's the one thing that I missed about moving to All Mac (I've seriously considered the TBD many times, but I didn't like the 27" iMac I had so why would I like the TBD other than it is a docking station?).

Anecdotal story: For years, I tried to convince my mother to get a docking station. She uses 12" Fujitsu Tablet PC's for presentations. Loves the protability and loves the functionality, but when she wants to use it as a "desktop" she hated having to plug everything in. I finally just broke down and bought a docking station for her for Christmas one year. Now she won't ever go without one (she bought a second docking station for her office so she has one both at home and at the office she loved it so much).

I still love the old Powerbook Duo / Duo Dock combo from the 90's!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerBook_Duo#Duo_Dock
 
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