4 ms·

I can't help but feel this is a solution without a problem.

by dreamux 16y ago

amock 16y ago
I think there's a problem that this is trying to solve but I don't think it solves it very well. The problem I have is that it's hard to share hardware between computers. What I want is to be able to plug all of my monitors, storage, printers, mice, keyboards, etc. into a bus along with my computers and then be able to decide via software which pieces to connect. This makes the situation better because you can hook all of your peripherals together and then plug one cable into a computer to use them all. If it were a switched network instead of only allowing chaining I think this would be great, but maybe the technology for that isn't cheap enough yet.
noelchurchill 16y ago
If it were wireless 10Gbs throughput that could be useful.
cmer 16y ago
This definitely solves the problem of slow, inefficient external hard drives. Especially with Firewire dying. USB2 is extremely slow for today's computing if you think about it...
- fletchowns 16y ago
  The transfer rates of platter hard drives, even some SSDs, is still below the speed of USB 2.0, is it not?
  - cmer 16y ago
    Definitely not. Firewire is MUCH faster than USB2, and it's still slower than having a drive connected directly to SATA for example... This new technology should allow external drives to be as fast as internal ones.
  - jarek 16y ago
    No - USB 2.0 is 80 MB/s theoretical, and you're lucky to get half of that sustained in practice. 20 MB/s is normal in my experience. Meanwhile hard drives have exceeded 100 MB/s on sequential read.
  - phamilton 16y ago
    One of the main problems with USB is the software implementation of it. Theoretical and practical are a wide split. Firewire is better in this regard due to the transfer protocol being done primarily in hardware. USB is designed to be more "Universal", so communication is delagated to software.
anigbrowl 16y ago
It'll be great for pro video, but then USB 3 would be too and I have yet to own any of those devices. I hope it does better than Firewire, whose ad-hoc networking potential was never fully exploited.
JunkDNA 16y ago
Well, for laptops and mobile devices, it's a nice alternative to a docking station. Connect one wire into your monitor from your laptop. Then all your stationary stuff: external disks, Ethernet, audio, and legacy USB devices all connect through a hub on the monitor.
- alexgartrell 16y ago
  Now imagine how great life would be if they could also run power through it (PoE style) so you could avoid plugging the laptop [directly] into the wall as well. One plug and done is a pretty compelling reason to forgo [1] the desktop altogether. [1] fun (completely unrelated) fact: forgo and forego are both words with pretty dissimilar meanings (to omit and to precede, respectively). I discovered this only because I was unsure of the spelling, but it's sufficiently surprising (to me) that I felt the need to share.
GHFigs 16y ago
One problem this (partially) solves is the performance gap between internal PCIe-based peripherals and external devices. USB3 and ExpressCard both top out at half the bandwidth of even a single lane PCIe 3.0 slot. If you look at the list of companies contributing blurbs to Intel's Thunderbolt page, about half of them are companies producing high-end A/V peripherals where this makes a real difference in terms of what kind of product they can offer.

I can't help but feel this is a solution without a problem.

by dreamux 16y ago

I can't help but feel this is a solution without a problem.

amock 16y ago

I think there's a problem that this is trying to solve but I don't think it solves it very well. The problem I have is that it's hard to share hardware between computers. What I want is to be able to plug all of my monitors, storage, printers, mice, keyboards, etc. into a bus along with my computers and then be able to decide via software which pieces to connect. This makes the situation better because you can hook all of your peripherals together and then plug one cable into a computer to use them all. If it were a switched network instead of only allowing chaining I think this would be great, but maybe the technology for that isn't cheap enough yet.

noelchurchill 16y ago

If it were wireless 10Gbs throughput that could be useful.

cmer 16y ago

This definitely solves the problem of slow, inefficient external hard drives. Especially with Firewire dying. USB2 is extremely slow for today's computing if you think about it...

fletchowns 16y ago
The transfer rates of platter hard drives, even some SSDs, is still below the speed of USB 2.0, is it not?
- cmer 16y ago
  Definitely not. Firewire is MUCH faster than USB2, and it's still slower than having a drive connected directly to SATA for example... This new technology should allow external drives to be as fast as internal ones.
- jarek 16y ago
  No - USB 2.0 is 80 MB/s theoretical, and you're lucky to get half of that sustained in practice. 20 MB/s is normal in my experience. Meanwhile hard drives have exceeded 100 MB/s on sequential read.
- phamilton 16y ago
  One of the main problems with USB is the software implementation of it. Theoretical and practical are a wide split. Firewire is better in this regard due to the transfer protocol being done primarily in hardware. USB is designed to be more "Universal", so communication is delagated to software.

anigbrowl 16y ago

It'll be great for pro video, but then USB 3 would be too and I have yet to own any of those devices. I hope it does better than Firewire, whose ad-hoc networking potential was never fully exploited.

JunkDNA 16y ago

Well, for laptops and mobile devices, it's a nice alternative to a docking station. Connect one wire into your monitor from your laptop. Then all your stationary stuff: external disks, Ethernet, audio, and legacy USB devices all connect through a hub on the monitor.

alexgartrell 16y ago
Now imagine how great life would be if they could also run power through it (PoE style) so you could avoid plugging the laptop [directly] into the wall as well. One plug and done is a pretty compelling reason to forgo [1] the desktop altogether. [1] fun (completely unrelated) fact: forgo and forego are both words with pretty dissimilar meanings (to omit and to precede, respectively). I discovered this only because I was unsure of the spelling, but it's sufficiently surprising (to me) that I felt the need to share.

GHFigs 16y ago

One problem this (partially) solves is the performance gap between internal PCIe-based peripherals and external devices. USB3 and ExpressCard both top out at half the bandwidth of even a single lane PCIe 3.0 slot. If you look at the list of companies contributing blurbs to Intel's Thunderbolt page, about half of them are companies producing high-end A/V peripherals where this makes a real difference in terms of what kind of product they can offer.