Following the Thunderbolt firmware update for Macs, Apple has published three new support documents pertaining to the new $49 Thunderbolt-to-Thunderbolt cable released Monday, using Thunderbolt with Boot Camp and Windows 7 and some tricks to get the best performance from Thunderbolt. Here’s what you need to know…
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It looks like the report that Apple has a lock on Light Peak technology for a year was wrong. Sony has gone ahead and announced their first Light Peak product in Europe and perhaps most interestingly, it contains an External GPU. TIMN summerizes:
The vertically standing peripheral (pictured above) uses Intel’s Light Peak (yes, the same thing as Apple’s Thunderbolt) via a proprietary port and USB 3.0 socket to connect to the laptop. And not only does it provide an AMD Radeon HD 6650M with 1GB of VRAM, but also allows you to connect up to three additional displays via its HDMI and VGA ports.
One of the promises of Thunderbolt was External GPU video cards. Imagine hooking your Thunderbolt-equipped, Sandy Bridge MacBook Air (with crappy integrated Intel GPU) to an external Thunderbolt GPU which drives a few 27-inch screens?
I like where this is going.
More shots below:
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We’ve been hoping Light Peak might make an appearance in new Macs since the technology first made an appearance working with a lab demo Mac Pro in 2009. We’ve been excited for the super-fast and super-flexible connectivity standard ever since — now it seems there’s a way to go before its ready to hit the market, according to Intel.