GIGABYTE Launches World's First Fully Certified Dual Port Thunderbolt Motherboards

[onethreehill]

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd., a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, today announced the latest GIGABYTE 7 series motherboards, the very first to offer fully certified dual onboard Thunderbolt ports. Capable of connecting up to 12 devices plus 3 digital displays simultaneously, with breathtaking data transfer speeds that can transfer 1 TB of data in only five minutes, GIGABYTE Thunderbolt motherboards offer the fastest connection interface ever on the desktop PC.

GIGABYTE Thunderbolt motherboards allow users to daisy chain up to 12 devices simultaneously via an incredible bi-directional 10 Gbps data pipeline that includes both PCIe and DisplayPort traffic. GIGABYTE Thunderbolt motherboards redefine desktop PC connectivity to make it far easier to connect multiple high speed storage devices and HD displays to your PC than ever before.

http://www.techpowerup.com/168669/GI...herboards.html

[N19h7m4r3]

Some had to do it first.

[paulbagz]

Is there that much demand for TB devices?

Feels like just a new Firewire to me.

-PB

[DeltZ]

Is there that much demand for TB devices?

Feels like just a new Firewire to me.

-PB

I think thunderbolt is daisy chainable up to 7 devices each port.

[Chrono Detector]

At least this time Gigabyte used better looking heatsinks on these boards, because their Z77 boards looked really generic and ugly. But I guess looks is not important, it depends on the features.

[defect9]

[Greg83]

OMG a replacement to the USB port.
With a parallel interface using a serial cable !!!!!
*in love*


/me waits for cat6e reality

[OldChap]

never mind more screens and other devices....I want this kind of tech to be able to run multiple computers in a cluster...... need more computing power??? add more rigs

[Kain665]

40GbE not enough?

[Splave]

what is thunderbolt?

[OldChap]

Maybe..... 100 too but it needs to be plug and play for fools like me so 12 Computers daisy chained would make a statement

[Kain665]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbolt_(interface)

[Russian]

Not interested in Thunderbolt until it delivers on the technology's fundamental promise of 100Gbit/s

[FischOderAal]

I think thunderbolt is daisy chainable up to 7 devices each port.

Sounds like Firewire to me... Even though FW can daisy chain even more devices.

[zanzabar]

i was hoping that this would not catch on until it was full speced, it will most likely hang around this spec for years now before changing to optical.

Sounds like Firewire to me... Even though FW can daisy chain even more devices.

affter about 3 devices firewire is really slow.

[FischOderAal]

affter about 3 devices firewire is really slow.

Not as slow as 3 USB devices connected to one USB Hub :p Yeah, it's more theoretically. But who knows how thunderbolt behaves after the third device? Of course you have a higher theoretical bandwith but how is it in practical use? All this data needs to be managed as well...

For me connecting a TB device to a "thunderbolt display" (guess the only one is made by Apple?) would be exactly like plugging a USB key into a monitor with USB hub. I don't have any more serious usecases anyway where TB would shine. And that's why i referenced TB to Firewire. Because somehow I doubt it will really catch on. USB is known to everyone. Even my parents know the term...

[paulbagz]

I think thunderbolt is daisy chainable up to 7 devices each port.

Which is one of its greatest strengths I do agree.

Don't people have to pay cash to get royalties off Apple however? (as they're patent holders to DP)?

-PB

[DilTech]

Is there even any devices worth more than 15% of a damn that uses thunderbolt? Of course not, it carries the apple logo. (although it was designed by intel as well, so intel can do use it on anything they please)

[zalbard]

Not interested in Thunderbolt until it delivers on the technology's fundamental promise of 100Gbit/s

I'd rather see some useful devices first, outside of external storage it's pretty much useless. Unless it manages to replace USB and display inputs everywhere...

[WangChung]

I think the statement of "it seems like another FireWire" was in regards to its proliferation (or lack thereof) in the market. How many accessories do you see that come with FireWire, vs how many do you see coming with USB/2.0/3.0?

And DisplayPort is NOT Apple's tech, like FireWire and Thunderbolt are. It was developed by VESA themselves and is royalty free. As far as my understanding from the literature out there, HDMI was never meant for the computer side of the HD industry (lack of some capabilities), and DisplayPort was designed specifically for it.

[Manicdan]

displayport is pushed heavily by dell. all their monitors and laptops come with it now it seems.
thunderbolt however has so many other ports that seem to do just fine already, that there might not be much of a desire to include it.

[Lanek]

The problem is TB is just for replace USB etc ports.. the devices dont really benefit of it