There's a fundamental problem with running data "really fast"... You need decent transmission lines AND adaptive equalization to make it work. And the equalization is non-trivial to implement in a robust way. There's no way to get the signal off the chip, onto the board, through a connector and into the wire without some impedance discontinuity. I'm sure that thunderbolt shares a lot of commonality at the Physical level with 10Gig Ethernet: same basic problems, same rates, etc. I think TB has 4 lanes (2 each direction) running at 5Gbps/lane (roughly)
Just like 10Gig E, TB was apparently optical, and then wound up being copper. So what does TB give you that 10GigE doesn't? Maybe different framing? On 6/10/13 8:57 PM, "Gerald Henriksen" <[email protected]> wrote: >On Mon, 10 Jun 2013 18:57:29 -0400, you wrote: > >>So a company based out of Cupertino mentioned using this silicon in a >>revamp of their MacPro line today... >> >>http://blogs.intel.com/technology/2013/06/video-creation-bolts-ahead-%E2% >>80%93-intel%E2%80%99s-thunderbolt%E2%84%A2-2-doubles-bandwidth-enabling-4 >>k-video-transfer-display-2/ >> >>we appear to have a second version of a 20GB/s consumer connection >>(latency unknown), and yet this search: >> >>https://www.google.com/search?q=linux+thunderbolt+interconnect >> >>does not really go anywhere cool like a github or kernel.org repo.... >> >>Any qualified folks know where this thunderbolt stuff is all heading >>and are able to talk in public? > >Thunderbolt so far is a very niche product that almost everybody >appears to be ignoring. > >The cables are expensive - starting in the $40 range for a 1 m cable. > >Actual devices are hard to come by, and tend towards the expensive - >raid boxes, and a couple of docks in the $300 range. > >This might change later this year when the new Mac Pro is released as >the closed box nature of it will force/encourage any expansion to be >external. > >But for now it looks like another Firewire in terms of market >acceptance. > >Until Intel (with or without the help of Apple) can get the cable >prices down and some more common affordable peripherals available - >like a single drive enclosure - the market will likely continue to >ignore Thunderbolt. >_______________________________________________ >Beowulf mailing list, [email protected] sponsored by Penguin Computing >To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit >http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf _______________________________________________ Beowulf mailing list, [email protected] sponsored by Penguin Computing To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf
