Who is going to make the first Thunderbolt audio interface?

[Bassmankr]

My guess is latency will be better than USB/Firewire but worse than PCI/PCIe slot card. Latency is effected by distance to motherboard chips (obviously anything exterior to the computer will travel a farther distance), and Thunderbolt will have at least one extra process to go thru compared to the PCI/PCIe slot card, also adding some latency.

[jupiter8]

Originally Posted by Bassmankr

My guess is latency will be better than USB/Firewire but worse than PCI/PCIe slot card. Latency is effected by distance to motherboard chips (obviously anything exterior to the computer will travel a farther distance),

Not really. Electricity travels at the speed of light (or at least pretty close) so i wouldn't worry about that.

Originally Posted by Bassmankr

and Thunderbolt will have at least one extra process to go thru compared to the PCI/PCIe slot card, also adding some latency.

What extra process would that be ? As i understand it TB is pretty much the same as a PCI slot.

[Bassmankr]

Distance with computers is a big factor right down to how each layer is made with the CPU. There is a reason ram is located so close to the CPU (longer physical distance would need longer refresh cycles). Thunderbolt will at least go through one more controller chip or extra gate keeper process and thus be more latent than a PCI / PCIe slot directly connected to the motherboard's Northbridge or Southbridge chip. There should be some signal flow diagrams on the net of motherboards that include Thunderbolt to see if this is the case.

[golem]

Originally Posted by Bassmankr

Distance with computers is a big factor right down to how each layer is made with the CPU. There is a reason ram is located so close to the CPU (longer physical distance would need longer refresh cycles). Thunderbolt will at least go through one more controller chip or extra gate keeper process and thus be more latent than a PCI / PCIe slot directly connected to the motherboard's Northbridge or Southbridge chip. There should be some signal flow diagrams on the net of motherboards that include Thunderbolt to see if this is the case.

I doubt that there is any significant difference in latency between PCIe and thunderbolt.

[UnderTow]

Originally Posted by Bassmankr

Thunderbolt will at least go through one more controller chip or extra gate keeper process and thus be more latent than a PCI / PCIe slot directly connected to the motherboard's Northbridge or Southbridge chip.

Thunderbolt goes through at least two controller chips. One to multiplex the DisplayPort and PCIe signals and one to demultiplex them at the receiving device. I don't think this will add any significant latency though. The quality of the drivers will likely have a much greater impact. Just like some USB devices performing better than some PCIe devices...

Yes RAM needs to be close to the CPU but with RAM we are talking latency counted in nanoseconds. With audio we are talking about milliseconds... That is six orders of magnitude of difference.

Alistair

[rksguit]

Originally Posted by UnderTow

The quality of the drivers will likely have a much greater impact.

From what I can tell,THIS can't be stated enough.

Although?

[Thunk Logic]

So.... from what I gather on this forum, I shouldn't wait around until June for the promised onslaught of TB Audio Interfaces, I should just go ahead and get the Apogee FW800 interface I've been eyeballing for my iMac? For audio, I don't see MUCH of a performance benefit over FW800 (yes, TB is faster, but is my computer fast enough to max out the TB potential for a dedicated DAW?), and unless the current TB interface prices get cut in half, I don't see any substantial economic benefit. Convince me otherwise? Anyone? Make me spend more money? PLEASE????

Also, I would like a TB hard drive. There again, is it going to actually transfer any faster than FW800 if I'm purely transferring audio and plug-in data?

[xgman]

Originally Posted by Thunk Logic

Also, I would like a TB hard drive. There again, is it going to actually transfer any faster than FW800 if I'm purely transferring audio and plug-in data?

The short answer is yes, but at a price.

[studiodave56]

I just had to upgrade(?) to a new iMac from my G5 and need to connect 8ch of AES/EBU I/O on XLRs, nothing more than that I don't need analog I/O to connect to the O2R. It could be TB but FW might also work but not as well because of the 8 external drives connected to the one FW 800 port. Anyone know if I have a chance anytime soon? Please be kind it's my first post here.

[Khazul]

Simple question - how many people here had a UAD DSP card at some time?

Of those people how many people at some time migrated to a different class of computer (workstation to mini, or laptop or visa versa?)

How many of you get p***ed off that your UAD PCI/PCIe DSP is now useless?

What if - back then - all of your computer had a thunderbolt interface on them - and you could still use you UAD DSP card on all of your computers?

For the folks with new high performance laptops - how annoying it is plugging in a tons of peripherals frequently? Have you noticed the ports on your laptop getting looser - are you yet starting to wonder how much longer those ports will last?

Picture this - you get home - plug in the TB cable and you laptop power - job done - you can work - oh and your hard-drives that are slow as hell (even for the express card HDs) compared to your desktop can be as fast as you desktop HDs?

Or simply you don't have to dig inside you desktop anymore for many common types of peripherals.

Suppose the next gen + 1 mac pro become a 1U rack or table top computer Intead of the current non rack machine, or the next 4U or 5U rack or tower machine?

No thunderbolt is not a new tech at heart - but its does allow for some really useful changes in what we can do with computers and how the form factors of computer can evolve and especially can dramatically improve the usefulness of space limited/all-in-one computers (laptops, minis, computer built into the display - imac etc).

[golem]

Originally Posted by Khazul

For the folks with new high performance laptops - how annoying it is plugging in a tons of peripherals frequently? Have you noticed the ports on your laptop getting looser - are you yet starting to wonder how much longer those ports will last?

Picture this - you get home - plug in the TB cable and you laptop power - job done - you can work - oh and your hard-drives that are slow as hell (even for

A bit offtopic but the only one thing (that I have found) that seems to be a bit questionable in TB is the connector. It is very small and I wonder how well the connector (both female and male) lasts if you plug/unplug your laptop to TB at least twice every day (in work and in home) for like 3-5 years. Is it even close to as durable as USB?

One of the best sides of USB is the connector. It is solid enough so that it will not losen easily by accident, it works even if the connector is a bit tilted and seems to last loads of plug/unplug cycles. Imagine that you work with laptop, have tons of documents open that are in the middle, then you go to the kitchen to get coffee and by accident you swing your hand to the TB cable and pull it off.

Or it could be your dog, cat, child whatever. Any experiences on the connector? I have just seen it in MBP, never used it though.