3 ms·
Thunderbolt, and Intel's "management" of that interface spec, is an excellent contrasting example of IEEE interfaces vs closed systems. I actively worked on a
by fallous 8y ago
Thunderbolt, and Intel's "management" of that interface spec, is an excellent contrasting example of IEEE interfaces vs closed systems. I actively worked on a project building around TB2 (and then 3) for over two years and eventually we gave up on the entire thing due to the obscurity of the protocol, the absence of details of the Intel implementations (the only game in town at the time), and a myriad other roadblocks. By contrast I have some historical familiarity with Sony's Firewire iterations and once it became IEEE-1394 (and variants) it exploded in both popularity and transparency.
If Intel treated the original USB in the same way they do ThunderBolt, we'd still be using ADB, serial, parallel, and PS/2 interfaces on all our machines.
- scarface74 8y agoDid FireWire actually "explode" in popularity? It was standard on Macs, Sonys, and most business Dell's at the time but it never got widespread consumer use. The "problem" with Thunderbolt is the same as with Firewire, it's overkill for most of the consumer market. I don't think that's a deal breaker, people who are willing and able to pay for computers with Thunderbolt and devices have plenty of options.
- wmf 8y agoAt least with Thunderbolt the port can be used for other purposes since it's backwards compatible.
- scarface74 8y agoWhich makes the situation worse. You can't tell what the port actually supports. For instance only two of the four "Thunderbolt 3" ports on the pre-2018 MacBook Pros with Touch Bar supported the full speed of Thunderbolt. The Macbook has one port that looks the same but it isn't a Thunderbolt 3 port and only supports speeds up to 5Gbps.
- fallous 8y agoThat's more the idiocy of USB-C than Thunderbolt itself.
- fallous 8y agoFirewire certainly exploded in popularity post-IEEE 1394 compared to when it was a Sony controlled interface with special dispensations for Apple. The number of vendors offering Firewire peripherals as well as the innovative software built around it made it a mainstay in market segments such as video editing and external storage. Hey, I'm willing to pay for Thunderbolt on an AMD Threadripper (because PCIe lanes matter) and I'm happy to build devices based on it (as noted, that was what I working on for a couple of years). Feel free to show me the options available to achieve that goal absent being a special preferred Intel vendor. Amusingly, I have some history with Intel... I worked there. I've also seen how they mismanage or abandon anything that isn't core x86.