I often receive storage devices for review, but it’s unusual that two such similar ones arrive at once. After giving each a fair amount of testing and use, I come away unimpressed.
Apple’s Thunderbolt Display Shows the Future
August 8, 2011 By 1 Comment
Thunderbolt is important not because it is fast but because it extends the PCI bus outside the computer chassis. The next iteration of the Mac Pro could be as tiny as the Mac Mini, as long as it has two or more Thunderbolt ports and an expansion chassis for video and I/O cards.
Thunderbolt = Light Peak = Mini DisplayPort + PCI Express
February 24, 2011 By 8 Comments
Apple unveiled their new line of MacBook Pro laptops today, complete with “Thunderbolt”, the trade name for a production packaging of Light Peak and Mini DisplayPort. After much speculation, we finally have some concrete information about Light Peak, and perhaps a peek into the next generation of I/O technologies!
Will Apple Call Light Peak “Thunderbolt”?
February 23, 2011 By 1 Comment
Intel has been incredibly tight-lipped about Light Peak. Although I’ve been hounding my contacts inside the company for months, no one has spilled the beans about anything. All I know about Light Peak I learned on the Internet, as they say. Now comes another bombshell: Apple will introduce Light Peak-equipped MacBook Pros tomorrow (February 24) with “Thunderbolt”, a high-speed I/O port!
Infographic: Real-World Port Throughput Relative To Light Peak
February 21, 2011 By 2 Comments
Just how fast is 10 gigabits per second anyway? To help out, I’ve prepared another napkin-tastic infographic!
How Fast Is It? A Storage Infographic
October 29, 2010 By 6 Comments
How fast is a hard disk drive? How about the various flavors of SATA and Fibre Channel? Check out this handy Pack Rat infographic to answer the question, “how fast is it?”
Will OS X 10.7 “Lion” Bring USB 3.0 To The Mac?
October 18, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Apple is a funny company, happy to go their own way even as the rest of the industry piles on to the latest trend. Such is the case with storage, with Apple ditching floppy drives, optical drives, and even hard disks. On the expansion side, Apple was an early and aggressive proponent of USB but stubbornly ignored eSATA. Now that PC makers are turning to USB 3.0, many are wondering when Apple will follow suit. My sources tell me that “Super Speed” USB 3.0 is indeed coming to the Mac, and very soon!
The Lure of Layer 2
July 14, 2010 By 4 Comments
Unless you’re “in the know”, terms like “layer 2″ can seem mysterious, making it all the more plausible when someone touts the benefits. It seems logical: “Bare-metal” communication must be better, faster, and cheaper than higher-level “everything over IP” approaches, right? But it’s not quite that simple.
How Should An External Hard Drive Be Attached?
May 15, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Lemons Into Lemonade: Seagate Repackages SATA As GoFlex
May 6, 2010 By Leave a Comment
The external hard disk drive market is incredibly hot right now, but it’s also ultra-competitive. The latest trend is dockable multi-function drives that are friendlier to use and offer advanced features like video playback. Most docks rely on USB 2.0, but Seagate just dropped a bomb on the industry with a simple twist: They moved the intelligence outside the case, repackaging the standard internal SATA connector as GoFlex, an external link to a variety of docks and adapters.
