Why No Thunderbolt SSD Sticks?

[Ivanlau]

Just a random thought...

I know the thunderbolt protocol is expensive/less common (than USB3), but it does offer high performance. Wouldn't it be cool if the manufacturers could come up with thunderbolt SSD sticks that can just be used as a boot drive, without all the clutter of a big chunky SSD 'drive'. Forget the orange boxes and DIY combo with random SSD adaptors (well, and a $39 thunderbolt canle). This neat solution could be a game changer. Intel has even made a prototype of 128GB SSD stick.http://www.myce.com/news/thunderbolt-stick-makes-usb-flash-drive-look-bad-speed-wise-67430/

I wouldn't mind paying if it could revive my old iMc with a 5400 rpm HDD.

 

[s-hatland]

i've also thought about this, mainly for the new mac pro. buy a thunderbolt hub and hook up 4 of these guys, RAID them and have a fairly fast 512 GB "external" drive for data/misc. however, they don't seem to be surfacing very quickly and i'm not even sure you could RAID essentially what are "flash" drives. if it were possible, might be a relatively low cost solution without cables coming out of your computer.

 

[ColdCase]

The type of flash used in USB sticks do not survive long as boot drives, fine for occasional or emergency use, let alone RAID. You need the more durable flash used in SSDs to provide reliable booting long term, and that would be the type to use for TB. These kind of chips are not small or inexpensive. The OWC envoy is a nice small USB 3 enclosure that uses the smaller SSD PCI type cards.

 

[wesk702]

Intel made one last year. I think it was projected at like $3k.