ok, what follows is my take on this. I may have some stuff wrong, and if I do I would appreciate being corrected.
Thunderbolt (aka lightpeak):
- Pros
* absurd transfer throughput (20Gb/sec theoretical max)
* Direct extension of the PCI-E bus, so anything that used to be on a PCI-E card can now be plugged in via a cable (yes, even a graphics card)
- cons
* cost, it requires a lot of silicon to implement. Both in the ports and in the cables (there are 12 chips in each cable *boggle*)
* Direct extension of the PCI-E bus, so someone can make a malicious thunderbolt device that could slurp the contents of memory simply by plugging it into your computer.
USB 3
- Pros
* damn cheap to implement
* fast enough for most consumer applications
- cons
* still has to use processor time if you want to transfer data (leading to performance bottlenecks)
I don't think it's going to be either-or. Apple has announced both thunderbolt and usb 3 on their most recent products. And a quick search on newegg also shows motherboards from Intel that have both ports as well.
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy
Thunderbolt (aka lightpeak):
- Pros
* absurd transfer throughput (20Gb/sec theoretical max)
* Direct extension of the PCI-E bus, so anything that used to be on a PCI-E card can now be plugged in via a cable (yes, even a graphics card)
- cons
* cost, it requires a lot of silicon to implement. Both in the ports and in the cables (there are 12 chips in each cable *boggle*)
* Direct extension of the PCI-E bus, so someone can make a malicious thunderbolt device that could slurp the contents of memory simply by plugging it into your computer.
USB 3
- Pros
* damn cheap to implement
* fast enough for most consumer applications
- cons
* still has to use processor time if you want to transfer data (leading to performance bottlenecks)
I don't think it's going to be either-or. Apple has announced both thunderbolt and usb 3 on their most recent products. And a quick search on newegg also shows motherboards from Intel that have both ports as well.
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy