Thunderbolt powerdock

[mscofield]

So I some video's of the new Sony Z series notebook.
The idea of attaching powerdock through with Intel's Lightpeak technology looks just fantastic!
You get a dedicated GPU, optical drive, extra ports and can connect up to 3 displays.

Can we expect a similar concept with Thunderbolt?
This combined with a Macbook Air would be the perfect solutions for many among us, i think.

Travel light, power up at home/office.
I see a very great future in this concept, how about you guys?

Engadget newspost:
http://www.engadget.com/2011/07/13/sonys-vaio-z-finally-arrives-in-the-us-goes-on-sale-starting-a/

 

[42streetsdown]

This doesn't seem like something Apple would do. A third party probably could, but it wouldn't be easy. Getting the OS to accept new hardware on fly might be tricky, and you'd have to use a GPU that is already in an Apple computer or use hackintosh drivers.

I'm not too familiar with how the ThunderBolt controller handles things. It might already have plug and play functionality for PCIe hardware, i dunno

 

[Hellhammer]

I'm not too familiar with how the ThunderBolt controller handles things. It might already have plug and play functionality for PCIe hardware, i dunno

Thunderbolt is based on PCIe (one channel for DisplayPort and the other for PCIe data). Sonnet is developing a TB to PCIe x4 adapter so any PCIe card that is supported by OS X should work with that adapter.

GPUs might be trickier but still plausible.

 

[42streetsdown]

Thunderbolt is based on PCIe (one channel for DisplayPort and the other for PCIe data). Sonnet is developing a TB to PCIe x4 adapter so any PCIe card that is supported by OS X should work with that adapter.

GPUs might be trickier but still plausible.

I know that it's based on PCIe, and using PCIe cards with it wouldn't be too much of a problem. However, I feel like you'd have to restart your machine for it to recognize certain kinds of hardware. Which would be problematic for the power dock idea.

 

[yongren]

Personally I think it'd be plenty cool to have a Thunderbolt dock with an ethernet port, monitor output (don't really care what kind), and as many USB ports as they can fit.

 

[darngooddesign]

Personally I think it'd be plenty cool to have a Thunderbolt dock with an ethernet port, monitor output (don't really care what kind), and as many USB ports as they can fit.

Last year, IRC, there were patent-drawing rumors floating around about an Air that docked into an iMac-shaped machine. Basically an update of the much loved Powerbook Duo Dock. I would much rather a solution like that.