Thunderbolt vs. SuperSpeed USB 327
Lucas123 writes "When it comes to performance, power and size, external I/O interconnect Thunderbolt handily beats SuperSpeed USB, but in the one critical category — ubiquity — it has an almost impossible uphill battle. Thunderbolt has a maximum 10Gbps signaling rate to SuperSpeed USB's 6Gbps and it offers more than twice the power to devices. To date, however, Apple is the only systems manufacturer to adopt Thunderbolt, and it has done so as an additional device connectivity port, keeping SuperSpeed USB on its computers. No other systems manufacturer has committed to Thunderbolt. In contrast, SuperSpeed USB has been installed on 10 billion pieces of hardware, with numbers continuing to grow."
TFA (-1, wrong) (Score:5, Insightful)
SuperSpeed USB has been installed on 10 billion pieces of hardware
No it hasn't. USB may have been installed on 10 billion pieces of hardware, but SuperSpeed USB is nowhere near as ubiquitous yet. SuperSpeed USB may be able to compatibly downgrade to full-speed USB communication, but that doesn't mean that anything you plug a SuperSpeed device into is magically SuperSpeed.
Anyway, I like the idea of Thunderbolt, especially the thought that it could become the holy grail of single cable interconnects. But just because I like a thing and it's technically better doesn't mean the world will adopt it. Unfortunately, I've learned that politics and money will drive the decision, not technology.
Firewire (Score:5, Insightful)
Hmm, this sounds just like the Firewire vs. USB competition with Apple pushing Firewire. We saw how that turned out. We all know that being better doesn't mean anything in this industry.
Re:Ubiquity vs. Moving Forward (Score:2, Insightful)
It was expensive, part of extravagant home theatre systems, and only the rich could afford it.
All true. It had one thing going for it, that thunderbolt doesn't. It was orders of magnitude better in features. When the CD first came out, it was MUCH higher quality than a record or tape. It was also random access, which no other music technology had. (Unless you want to count lifting a record player arm and trying to figure out where the track started). Those features made people WANT this technology, and there was no real competitor for the features CD offered. Nobody really liked skipping records, the huge format, tapes that break, or fast forwarding through a song you didn't like.
What's the hugely differentiating feature that thunderbolt has? Faster specs? Not gonna cut it against ubiquity.
How about giving Thunderbolt a few months first (Score:4, Insightful)
Thunderbolt was just released a few months ago. USB3 has been out for almost 2 years and it is finally starting to get a little traction in the marketplace. Something else to keep in mind is that Thunderbolt is Intel tech, not Apple. Intel is pushing Thunderbolt so Thunderbolt will be on 95% of mobos in a couple years. Since Thunderbolt is Intel tech, Microsoft will support it as well. Don't discount how much damage was done to FW by shitty MS firewire drivers that barely worked. Intel, Microsoft, and Apple will all be pushing Thunderbolt to succeed.
One last thing, look for video card manufacturers to be pushing TB as well to get rid of DL DVI,DVI, and VGA cables.
Thunderbolt will succeed.
Re:TFA (-1, wrong) (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:TFA (-2, wrong) (Score:3, Insightful)
Yeah, that was my fault in the Slashdot submission, which I always write up far too quickly. The article doesn't say Apple has Superspeed USB on its systems -- the Slashdot summary does. Doesn't anyone on Slashdot take time to actually read the article?
If you took the time to actually read Slashdot, you'd know the answer was no...