Will the Apple 27 inch Thunderbolt monitor...

be the only one? Or will Dell make one? Or will apple make maybe a 24 inch version? Thanks, Dave

 

Apple has a year head start over everyone else with Thunderbolt. Eventually everyone else will get it....probably. There's always a chance that USB 3 gains more popularity because it's more widely available and you may only see TB on Apple products.

 

Intel intends to integrate TB at the chipset level, possibly with the next revision of their hardware. So it's just a matter of time.

Until then, I simply don't care about TB. I'm not buying a $1500 2011 MBA and two $1000 TB monitors just for the privilege of being able to connect two monitors to it.

 

The only thing that bothers me about Thunderbolt is that the physical connector has not been standardized. Apple is using a mini-displayport connector and they may own a patent/copyright on doing so. Sony implemented Thunderbolt on the Vaio Z but it uses a USB connector, they also called it Intel Light Peak or something along those lines (since Apple came up with the Thunderbolt name). Same technology, just a different physical interface and name.

So there would be no point if Dell or any other company came out with a Thunderbolt monitor if they decided to use a USB interface or some other type of proprietary in-house setup unless we could find a converter cable (which I would doubt). As for a smaller monitor from Apple, nobody truly knows anything about Apple products until they are officially announced. Until then, you have to rely on rumor and speculation. There currently isn't anything from the rumor mills regarding Apple making a smaller monitor. I also wouldn't count on it at this point since they have been making only the 27" option for quite a bit of time.

 

Its standard, thats the only one that intel supports

they cant use the name thunderbolt nor lightpeak, they use whatever name they want, the USB developers forum already vetoed USB implementations of that thing, sony got away with it (they were a partner in the development of the interface), since intel developed the interface to not be connector dependent, however as I said, the USB developer forum vetoed anything coming using it. And the said forum is headed by no other than Intel and other big guys

And its not the same tech, the sony implementation uses a fiber connection, and the signal converter needs to be added

Ivy bridge wont come with thunderbolt integration in the chipset, as anand already mentioned, however future implementations of the chipset might come with it (like a new Z68 or other chipsets that appear down the line)

Although I dont like the news, its what is most reliable right now

 

Yeah, I did not want to do that either! Which is why I was hoping someone would make a nice TB monitor for say $400

 

It's less likely that monitor manufacturers will adopt Thunderbolt (or Intel LightPeak) ports on their monitors.

More likely is that we'll begin to see a small docking device with a Light Peak / Thuderbolt port on it and this device will break out that bus to DVI, Display Port, ethernet and USB ports to connect all your devices.

Having the thunderbolt port directly on the monitor isn't so great from a consumer prospective but very good for Apple's profits. Each time it's improved you need to throw away your entire display and buy a new one! Not to mention that not everyone wants a glossy Cinema Display.

I would have preferred that Apple introduce the Thunderbolt iDock instead. Word on the street is that other manufacturers will bring this to market instead which will allow you to connect any brand monitor and all your devices to your Mac via a single Thunderbolt cable.

 

Excellent points all. I agree totally. The iDock would be the way to go.

 

hm, not IB. maybe haswell.

the way intel phrased it, it seems like they're actively encouraging OEMs to include TB chips on mobos.

 

monoprice.com has minidisplay/thunderbolt port adapters to female dual link DVI, HDMI, etc.

they range between $7 and $70 USD.

you'd have to experiment I think to be sure that the monitor could be viewed at it's native resolution via the adapters. A thunderbolt to dual link DVI adapter should be able to give you 2560x1600 on a dell 30" display assuming your GPU can handle that.

* I don't see an apple dock coming along. We don't have the ports on the underside of our laptops like say the laptop workstations from Dell and others do. Basically your looking for an adapter which is no big deal. Actually it is nicer in my opinion than i big old ugly dock. I agree it would be preferred if the displays did all carry the "thunderbolt" port so that you could setup dual monitors. Imagine dual 30" 2560x1600 displays in portait. that would be awesome. not sure the ati graphics in the 2011 mbp's can handle that though

 

The AMD graphics in the current MBP's shouldn't have any issues driving 2560X1600 so long as we aren't talking about games. I think the Intel HD 3000 would be fine doing that as well. I don't think we are going to see anything come from Apple that has Thunderbolt in it except for their monitor and Macs. It would be nice if Apple came out with a rectangular dongle that plugged into the Thunderbolt port while going to a few USB 3.0, eSATA, USB 2.0, maybe an external GPU, and another Thunderbolt port (for audio and video passthrough) so that we could essentially take a MBP or MBA home, plug it into a singular port (aside from the AC power), and have full desktop-like access to a series of accessories but I don't see them doing that.

We will likely have to rely on 3rd party vendors for such solutions and, right now, they are taking their time doing this. The first accessories like that are also going to be painfully expensive. The first Thunderbolt RAID option is way, way too much.