Any news on a Thunderbolt Hub?

[Cicatrix]

Does any one have an idea of when we might expect to see a ThunderBolt hub? And if so, what do you think some of the general port configurations may be. Two HDMI, two USB, one Firewire, and two esata's perhaps? Hopefully it won't be the size of a toaster.

[jamwerks]

There have been some announced already. By Sonnet I believe. As alway, a little google search will get you there!

[Cicatrix]

Sonnet, I will check into it, thanks. I did a quick googling and didn't come up with anything, so I just thought I would mention it here in passing through today because I didn't see any actual topics whatsoever about it.

Thanks again jamwerks.

[chrisjade]

very interested in a thunderbolt hub. hope not too expensive???
the macbook pro has limited ports, but thunderbolt can solve this issue.
it will eliminate the need to daisychain devices like duet/fw800 drive.
plus having an esata port would be awesome, and more usb always welcome.
the only thing i would not place on this hub would be the ti polar, as these dont like hubs.

[JonesH]

Thunderbolt was built for daisychaining so I'm not too sure if we'll ever see a TB hub with several Thunderbolt outputs. I don't know, of course, but every paper mentions daisychaining and not hubbing.

That said, I can't wait til Apple makes a cinema display with Thunderbolt and FW, USB, Audio etcetera in the display. That will be awesome.

The sonnets are PCIe chassis, FW800 adapters or gigabit Ethernet adapters.

[nativeaudio]

Sonnet - New Product Announcement at NAB 2011

[jamwerks]

Originally Posted by Cicatrix

Thanks again jamwerks.

thumbsup

[skiltrip]

Originally Posted by JonesH

Thunderbolt was built for daisychaining so I'm not too sure if we'll ever see a TB hub with several Thunderbolt outputs. I don't know, of course, but every paper mentions daisychaining and not hubbing.

Can't a hub be made to actually daisy chain, but internally. All dais chaining is is one device passing data thru that isn't intended for it correct?

What's the technology behind current FireWire hubs? I'd think it would be the same for T-Bolt.



Posted via the Gearslutz iPhone app.

[JonesH]

You are probably right. Seeing as how Apple launched new iMacs two seconds ago and the top of the line features two TB connections, it might be something along the lines of what you said.

Edit: And from apples own pages it would appear that the TOtL iMac actually might have two separate TB buses. That's pretty darn cool.

[T_R_S]

It's all right here

Let me google that for you

[samsquarewave]

Finally, a hub is released. Unfortunately, it is $999. On the bright side, it comes with a free display.

Apple - Thunderbolt Display - More pixels and more possibilities.

[nst7]

What's nice about it is that it's also a firewire to Thunderbolt and Ethernet to thunderbolt adapter as well. And USB.

[(un)reason]

This finally makes the macbook air seem like a viable primary machine. With one of these displays plus an external hard drive, you have all the connectivity and screen estate of an imac at home, and can just unplug and go and take the essentials with you quickly and easily. Give it a few more years and hopefully we'll be able to say something similar about the ipad.

[FLYINGJAY]

http://www.the-cable-store.com/conte...peak_hubs.html

Sent from my PC36100 using Gearslutz.com App

[Sinocelt]

A hub with HDMI and several USB 3.0 ports would be welcome. I can buy inexpensive USB 3.0 hard drives at the local supermarket, but wouldn't be unable to use their full speed with a MacBook Air (which I'm currently very tempted to buy). I was very disappointed to discover that even the new $1000 Apple hub/display coming out this month doesn't have USB 3.0. And only 3 USB 2.0 ports. >_<

The new MacBook Air is nearly perfect. The Yvy Bridge one next year should be perfect, as the new Intel processor will support USB 3.0 natively -- little reason/excuse then for Apple not to replace the USB 2.0 ports by USB 3.0 ones on all their Macs, even if they want to push TB.

[frawnchy]

Originally Posted by Sinocelt

I can buy inexpensive USB 3.0 hard drives at the local supermarket

Chances are those inexpensive supermarket hard drives have a low top speed anyway due to the bottlenecking effect of mechanical HDDs (they might go as fast as an esata connection, faster than FW).
USB 3.0 is bordering on pointless without an SSD at each end of the connection.

[Sinocelt]

Originally Posted by frawnchy

USB 3.0 is bordering on pointless without an SSD at each end of the connection.

Not with a USB 3.0 hub. I currently have six USB devices connected to my laptop in such a way, among which two hard drives.

[intensemojo]

None of the links above actually take you to a viable tb hub solution. Other than the display I have not seen anything out yet.