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Apple's New Technology?
Recently Apple just introduced a new input/output port called “Thunderbolt” on its new MacBook Pro notebooks. Though it sounds like that Apple owns it, the technology is actually developed and owned by Intel under the code name “Light Peak.” Apple is just the first one to adapt to the new technology and introducing it to the market, under a different name.
What is “Thunderbolt?”
The “Thunderbolt” technology is an optical cable interface that provides enough bandwidth to replace both the data connectors and the high performance ports such as USB and FireWire. It is currently the fastest input/output technology that supports high-resolution displays and promises a transfer rate of up to 10GB/second in both directions, and at the same time! It is nearly 20 times faster than a standard USB port. Oh, did I forget to mention that this is only the current speed? It has the potential rate of over 100GB/second over its course life! Now that is fantastic!
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The New Age
Though “Thunderbolt” technology is fairly new to us right now, experts has predicted that “Thunderbolt” will be adopted as the new standard port for computers and will eliminate the need of all other ports. It’s almost like globalization, but in a different way. The “Thunderbolt” technology will increase input/output speed dramatically, which in turn improves performance and quality. If the “Thunderbolt” port becomes the new standard, soon we will be able to see lighter and thinner computers and laptops. Reason why? It’s because it eliminates the need for all other ports, which should free up some space. Some people believe that it might be quite difficult to get people to use the new port standard, but who knows. Everyone believes that the bigger and slower the technology, the better, right?
What’s so great about the “Thunderbolt” technology is that in the future, we might have just one universal connector that can handle all our data transfer needs. This means that all of your devices such as data drives, external displays, and mobile phones will be able to connect to one another by using the same port, which makes life whole lot simpler. After all, who needs all those old piles of cables anyway right?
However, there is a downside to this. What if there is a new technology that the “Thunderbolt” can’t support or there are only a limited number of devices that “Thunderbolt” supports? What are we going to do then? Well, someone will figure that out. It’s not like it is the end of the world.
If you want to discover and learn more about the “Thunderbolt” technology, here are a few links that might be helpful:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCz_c_rDAXw
http://www.intel.com/technology/io/thunderbolt/index.htm
http://www.apple.com/thunderbolt/
Source:
Etherington, Darrell. “Thunderbolt: Apple’s Port to End All Ports?” http://gigaom.com. TheAppleBlog. 23 February 2011. Web. 10 March 2011.
http://gigaom.com/apple/thunderbolt-apples-port-to-end-all-ports/
