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iMac Gets Thunderbolt I/O, Quad-core
fergus07 writes "Apple's desktop lineup has typically pushed users requiring plenty of fast I/O towards the Mac Pro — but the latest iMac refresh has broken the tradition. Quad-core Sandy Bridge CPUs and faster ATI Radeon HD GPUs are welcomed, but it's the addition of Thunderbolt ports (one in the 21.5-inch and two in the 27-inch) that really ups the ante for a number of professional users."
Maybe a future version of the iMac will even have Blu-Ray.
For those (like me) that had no idea what Thunderbolt is, apparently it is the new name for what was formerly known as Light Peak.
With dual Thunderbolt on the 27" iMac, this is the first time (I believe?) that a Mac can drive three displays without the use of an external splitter. I can tell you I'd love to have three 27" 1440p displays on my workstation. Also, since iMacs can run headless, if you get three the other two can act as compile servers and/or file servers. It comes with a pricetag but that's a nice hunk of computing power.
Okay now just put that in a Minitower case with PCIe slots, sata connectors, and lots of Dimm slots. Sell it for under $1000 dollars.
I know that Apple doesn't need that machine because they are making money hand over fist but there is a big gap between the iMac and the MacPro in expandability. Maybe we could call it the iMac II ?
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
What use case would adding a BD-ROM or BD-R drive solve that isn't already solved by Netflix streaming, iTunes streaming, or external hard drives?
Really, the only nice thing that I can see from this update is that Apple elected to include 3 Display Support by default on their All-in-One.
Everything else seems to place this computer quite a bit higher price for what you get than competitors products.
Great news for those wanting to install Snow Leopard on their Sandy Bridge machines. It was imperfect early on (involving setting busratio flags amongst others) but now that MacOS is officially supported on the 2nd generation Cores it should make for a smoother Hackintosh experience.
Mind you, the fact it's taken Apple four months to catch up isn't impressive. If hobbyists could run it on day one of the new chips being released, I don't see why Apple couldn't have prepared for it sooner...
It looks like Thunderbolt is a sure thing on Apple machines in future. Apple hasn't included USB3 in any of their machines and USB3 has been very slow to grow. Hopefully, when Apple includes a new interface it significantly encourages its adoption by others. There's some precedent in the history of USB prior to USB3. And Apple hardware characteristics has more influence on market than it probably ever has in the past. Excited for Thunderbolt!
how is the pci-e lane setup on dual TB port system?
half of the X16 pci-e with x8 to video and 2 X4 to each TB port? or just the 1 X4 bus to 2 TB ports.
PCI Express slots? Thunderbolt is external PCIe along with DisplayPort. SATA? Thunderbolt is faster than even SATA 6G, and there's already a Thunderbolt hard drive. Who knows? Someone could come out with an eSATA card connecting to the Thunderbolt port.
I'm glad to see Apple rolling out Thunderbolt to their whole lineup and not restricting it to the high end. Anything they can do to promote this and get it mainstream for all computers will be a benefit to the industry and end users. Tangles of cords, switching cords, and unchainable unintelligent standards have been hampering us for too long. No, I don't want to have to have a computer in between my video camera and my high capacity storage drive. No, I don't want to have more than one cable between my monitor and computer and yes I want to plug USB devices, microphones, hard drives, etc. to the device on top of my desk instead of climbing under it. The throughput and flexibility here has been needed for a long time. Come on industry, full speed ahead with this one!
Most "non geeks" simply aren't going to relate well to your attitude and probably want a spinny disk.
The impression that I get from CronoCloud and others who post comments to Slashdot is that most non-geeks aren't going to want to use a TV as a computer monitor. Instead, they'll continue to watch BD movies on their dedicated consumer electronics appliances.
So it's a new laptop with some pretty unremarkable new features. This article is different from the 100 other "latest new product" offers that arrive in my junk email box, how? ...apart from the fact it's on Slashdot and not in my junk email folder of course.
Yep, if you want fast I/O like eSATA you have to get a Mac Pro. ...
Oh, wait
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
How about ripping a Blu-Ray disc to an external hard drive?
How about Apple getting taken to court by Sony, Fox, Warner, Universal, and Paramount? I was looking for a use of Blu-ray discs that is both 1. substantial and 2. lawful in Apple's home country.
A friend of mine recently decided she wants an iMac. She went to the Apple Store and decided to get a 24". She said the 21" was too small and the 27" too large. I advised her to hold off on the purchase as there was a spec refresh due soon, so she did. Now there isn't a 24" iMac. I do like that Apple have a limited choice of specs, compared to say Dell where their website offers a seemingly infinite number of choices presented in a way which does little to aid the decision of what to buy, but the loss of the 24" iMac seems like a choice reduction too far.
Why would somebody buy a computer from a phone company?
It seemed pretty much par for the course in college that a significant amount of people didn't own a TV.
College students probably have broadband. They can get movies on Netflix or iTunes, no spinny disc required.
where did all that glorious HD content come from
I mentioned a couple legit sources of HD streaming video in my previous comment
(ie, how did the person who uploaded it get it?)
By hiring a writer, director, actors, film crew, editor, and post-production special effects team.
Considering Netflix now has more subscribers than Comcast
But does Netflix have more subscribers than Comcast, TWC, Mediacom, and all other local cable monopolies combined? Unlike Comcast, Netflix's area of operation is the entire United States of America.
Come on, keep your ads out of my News. I will find my products when I need to buy one.
I'm sorry, did I miss the Jobs bowel movement post for today?
Did I miss also the post about Dell's new Latitudes?
I predict this will not be the monumental change in technology they think it will be. It will probably be on the range of FireWire... When was the last time you heard a windows box with a firewire port or card? Although I did use firewire before upgrading to eSATA, I just can't see this as becoming mainstream much outside of the mac community.
I mean SATA is already at 6Mbps, I'm sure 12Mbps is just around the corner. I've already got fast enough ports for the things I need. Another issue - whenever you try to mix multiple things into one plug, there is the issue of redundancy - or lack thereof. Also it concerns me - as the more you put into one port, the more there is to go wrong. I've got one of these mac 19" flat screen Apple Studio Displays from years ago - with built in usb, power button (that turns on the whole computer including the monitor) , and a button that brings up the brightness control panel. The power for the monitor comes in through the same cable too - directly from the mac. Guess what - the usb shorted out, and the buttons don't work any more... In addition the brightness can't be adjusted - even directly in the control panel (I think the monitor electronics have malfunctioned, preventing any changes). Thank god I upgraded to a pci usb2 card - and that my mac has a power button on the board itself - otherwise it'd be useless.
I guess this means I'll need yet another adapter for my adb keyboard... adb to usb; usb to thunderbolt.
I don't know what it is with that my name, but my electronics feel fried already!
Kind of surprising really. If the folks at Apple ever read their spam, they'd know that 3" is the ideal increment if you want anything to be available in a larger size.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Is it just me or the summary don't make any sense at all? I'm pretty tech savvy but I just red it three times and I'm still don't know what the article is all about.
"pushed users requiring plenty of fast I/O towards the Mac Pro" What does it mean? That the user have fast I/O hard disks(?) with the Mac Pro or does it require user to have fast hard disks(?) for the Mac Pro?
"Quad-core Sandy Bridge CPUs and faster ATI Radeon HD GPUs are welcomed" I thought we are talking about I/O like a hard disk but now we are talking about CPUs and graphic cards?
"Thunderbolt ports" What? Ports that zap lighting out?
"one in the 21.5-inch and two in the 27-inch" laptops or monitors?
"that really ups the ante for a number of professional users." if they post comments on slashdot it will zap them?
http://www.mueller-public.de - My site http://www.anr-institute.com/ - Advanced Natural Research Institute
Streaming services don't enable me to watch my existing library of Blu-Ray movies
If you have an existing library, you probably already have an existing player connected to your existing television.
nor do they enable me to read BD-ROM discs
Which notable computer programs are distributed exclusively on BD-ROM discs, other than games for the PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment system?
Streaming services have a monthly cost and I am not subscribed.
Disc rental by mail services also have a monthly cost and you are not subscribed.
don't like the build in screen and the mini sucks.
Low end video card + low end cpu in the mini and TB is only pci-e X4 less over head so it will suck for video cards.
So much for 2011 being the year of the Mac. A new I/O connector isn't really separating Mac's from the rest of the market (considering there is very little thunderbolt hardware available and then all you are going to use it for is storage solutions). There is a reason why Apple took Computer out of their name.
Okay now just put that in a Minitower case with PCIe slots, sata connectors, and lots of Dimm slots. Sell it for under $1000 dollars.
Why would Apple do that? If you are looking for a cheap PC, go buy a cheap PC. The only difference between what you describe and a generic Windows box is the operating system. Apple would be retarded to do that. The fastest way for Apple to become unprofitable is to get into selling products that are no different than any other computer maker. Hell, if you want that sort of a machine go build yourself a hackintosh. Nothing stopping you.
The thing I don't like about these machines is that, just like upgrading a laptop, if you want to upgrade from the older version of the 27-inch iMac, you have to buy a complete new system (unless I am mistaken), which seems to be a waste over a PC upgrade where you wouldn't have to fork over 800 bucks for another 27-inch screen that you are going to have to replace again at some time in the not-too-distant-future :(
Once I was a four stone apology. Now I am two separate gorillas.
To add to all the above, thunderbolt allows bus power at 10W. Compared to USB2 (2.5W maximum), and USB3, (4.5W max), this is a big improvement (eSata doesn't even supply power without the eSATAp connector, which isn't fully adopted). Thunderbolt will natively fast-charge an iPad (when Apple releases a tbolt connector or hub) and many other such devices.
Of course, the bus power situation on firewire was much better (30V x 1.5A = 15W), but alas, we'll have to do with 10W, as Apple migrates everyone over from their "failed" standard FW to TB (which won't make the same royalty mistake that FW did).
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The throughput and flexibility here has been needed for a long time. Come on industry, full speed ahead with this one!
Commodore 1541 serial, LocalTalk, FireWire, and now Thunderbolt.
I hope this succeeds - it's about time.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
I can only count to 31 on one hand. 58 laptops with bluray drives at Newegg
In fact, with online services, you don't have the additional lag of burning and shipping/delivering a disc.
At 5 GB/mo out in the country, a 1 GB home movie takes on average six days to get there. The Post Office is faster.
There was a TV in the student union and some dorm lounges, but not many. My fraternity had one down in the basement lounge. On the other hand, I went to school in an area that was hilly enough that you couldn't really get TV without cable or a really big antenna tower. One neighbor in the dorms had a TV one year, but could only sort of get one UHF station, badly.
That was a good thing - it kept us from wasting much time watching TV. We did watch Star Trek reruns, and occasional sports or movies, but not much. If we wanted to do things other than studying, we'd actual do them with other people, or go hang out in the pub.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Yes, you can use external hard drives for backups, but it's convenient to be able to make them on cheap removable media as well. (Admittedly, with terabyte drives under $100, it's less valuable than it used to be, but 25GB Blue-Ray is a lot more convenient than 4GB DVDs. You can use an external burner, I suppose.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
I have to agree. I have a lot of old TV shows - Like from the 50's and 60's. There was a series called "Captain Nice" (1967 - I have 15 episodes) that is really funny. And I have a lot of old movies (including "A trip to the moon" from1902 and the 1915 "The Birth of a Nation" {originally called The Clansman}) and a lot of movies from the 1920's and 1930's. I also have a bunch of old "serials" like "Radar Men from the Moon" and "Secret Agent X-9" (a 1945 Universal Serial). Not to mention some really crappy VHS copies of both movies and old TV shows. Video quality is relative to me. I collect a lot of videos.
As it is with websites, Content is King. Personally I haven't even considered a bluray, and considering some of the software update stories I've heard I'd probably *not* get a computer if it did have a bluray drive built in.
that
1) People still argue that there isn't a gaping hole in the Mac lineup between the iMac and the Mac Pro because there clearly is and Apple aren't filling it because ultimately they make more money with the rather anaemic iMac and the ludicrously excessive Mac Pro.
and
2) People still call OSX OS/X. Are you that nostalgiac for OS/2? Otherwise what's that slash doing in there? It's easy. OS8, OS9, OSX.
iTunes probably not (they'd rather have that than the RIAA on their doorstep) but I wouldn't be surprised if netflix is seen as a bandwidth hog.
Likewise, universities would rather have a bandwidth hog than the MPAA on their doorstep.
The only thing that exclusivity deals accomplish is to limit consumer choice and allow competitors the opportunity to get ahead (see: the iPhone.) From a marketing standpoint limiting Thunderbolt to Apple increases the value of the Mac, when in reality it chokes off the 3rd party ecosystem, and makes the port into a mostly useless esoteric novelty. Like Firewire-800.
According to Apple, Thunderbolt can do 10Gbps * 2 on dual channels.
That's faster than any hard disk, raid or even an enterprise-level fibre channel SAN.
I fail to see why anybody would need a connection that fast - where do you think the data will be going?
And don't you think it's time to start looking at upgrading the slowest component of a computer instead? The hard disk.
There are very few cards that need or use all 16x.
How many x does a video card need?
As far as I know, Microsoft has not applied any "robustness" to XP x64
Then you may not be aware of Certified Output Protection Protocol, which "defines a protocol that is used to establish a secure communications channel with the graphics driver" according to MSDN.