Intel on Thunderbolt: Our goal is quality, more compatible accessories on the way
Intel pushed back on Friday against allegations that it was the company's own policies that have hindered the wider adoption of Thunderbolt beyond Apple's Mac lineup, with the chipmaker saying that until now it has been more focused on the quality of its partners' devices, rather than quantity.
On Tuesday, a Digitimes report emerged blaming Intel's pricing and control policies for the lag in adoption of Thunderbolt, an I/O standard developed in conjunction with Apple and currently featured across that company's Mac line of computers. Jason Ziller, Intel's marketing director for Thunderbolt contacted AppleInsider on Friday, saying that the report was off base.
"I'm really not sure where those numbers came from," Ziller said of the wholesale prices quoted for Thunderbolt parts. "There's recommended pricing on ark.intel.com, and you can see on there that the new controllers are all under $10. Our prices have never been [as high as in the report]."
The report, Ziller said, also missed the mark with regard to Intel's being the sole seller of technologies critical to Thunderbolt's operation.
"The way it works is that the Thunderbolt specification lists the signal requirements for Thunderbolt technology, including on the connectors and cables," Ziller explained. "Just like any other specs, there are signal requirements, and the cables and connectors have to meet those specifications in order to make it to market. The spec is part of a license we grant, and it's a royalty-free license.
"But it's not proprietary or exclusive or anything," he said. "In fact, there are multiple suppliers that make the components."
The original, disputed report aimed to explain why Thunderbolt has seen relatively low adoption some two years after the standard's introduction. Despite the technology's capabilities ? offering speeds twice as fast as USB 3.0, as well as the ability to daisy-chain devices without a hub ? there are, by Ziller's own admission, only about 80 Thunderbolt-compatible products on the market today. That, the Intel rep claims, is due to a focus on quality over quantity.
"We wanted to make sure that we were working directly with these companies and that they were successful," he said.
Ziller said that early on the company was still finalizing Thunderbolt's specifications, even as it worked with a small group of vendors. Additionally, he said that Intel's certification program is more robust than those of other standards. For those reasons, Intel didn't begin licensing Thunderbolt broadly until the beginning of last year's fourth quarter.
Going forward, Intel expects the standard to see greater adoption. The company would like to see more products coming to market, and Ziller says there has been an increase not only in the number of companies developing Thunderbolt-compatible devices, but also the number of devices each company is working on.
"We're pleased at the rate of growth," Ziller said, noting that the standard currently has over 220 licensees, with many of those having come since the fourth quarter of last year. "We think that this year it's going to expand even further."
AppleInsider contacted DigiTimes for comment on Intel's responses and will update this article should the publication reply.
On Tuesday, a Digitimes report emerged blaming Intel's pricing and control policies for the lag in adoption of Thunderbolt, an I/O standard developed in conjunction with Apple and currently featured across that company's Mac line of computers. Jason Ziller, Intel's marketing director for Thunderbolt contacted AppleInsider on Friday, saying that the report was off base.
"I'm really not sure where those numbers came from," Ziller said of the wholesale prices quoted for Thunderbolt parts. "There's recommended pricing on ark.intel.com, and you can see on there that the new controllers are all under $10. Our prices have never been [as high as in the report]."
"We're pleased at the rate of growth [of Thunderbolt]. We think that this year it's going to expand even further." - Jason Ziller, Intel marketing director
The report, Ziller said, also missed the mark with regard to Intel's being the sole seller of technologies critical to Thunderbolt's operation.
"The way it works is that the Thunderbolt specification lists the signal requirements for Thunderbolt technology, including on the connectors and cables," Ziller explained. "Just like any other specs, there are signal requirements, and the cables and connectors have to meet those specifications in order to make it to market. The spec is part of a license we grant, and it's a royalty-free license.
"But it's not proprietary or exclusive or anything," he said. "In fact, there are multiple suppliers that make the components."
The original, disputed report aimed to explain why Thunderbolt has seen relatively low adoption some two years after the standard's introduction. Despite the technology's capabilities ? offering speeds twice as fast as USB 3.0, as well as the ability to daisy-chain devices without a hub ? there are, by Ziller's own admission, only about 80 Thunderbolt-compatible products on the market today. That, the Intel rep claims, is due to a focus on quality over quantity.
"We wanted to make sure that we were working directly with these companies and that they were successful," he said.
Ziller said that early on the company was still finalizing Thunderbolt's specifications, even as it worked with a small group of vendors. Additionally, he said that Intel's certification program is more robust than those of other standards. For those reasons, Intel didn't begin licensing Thunderbolt broadly until the beginning of last year's fourth quarter.
Going forward, Intel expects the standard to see greater adoption. The company would like to see more products coming to market, and Ziller says there has been an increase not only in the number of companies developing Thunderbolt-compatible devices, but also the number of devices each company is working on.
"We're pleased at the rate of growth," Ziller said, noting that the standard currently has over 220 licensees, with many of those having come since the fourth quarter of last year. "We think that this year it's going to expand even further."
AppleInsider contacted DigiTimes for comment on Intel's responses and will update this article should the publication reply.
Comments
This being said, at least on paper, Thunderbolt is a much better and future proof interface than USB3.
But USB is past-proof.
The same can be said with USB 3.0. Sure, there are PCIe USB 3.0 cards but the same can be said for TB, and I don't think either of these are issues since desktop/towers are not the most commonly sold modern PC today.
Touché.
"We're pleased at the rate of growth". Huh?
Wake me up when I can buy a cheap Thunderbolt flash drive.
Having a Thunderbolt printer, mouse, trackpad, and even hard drive doesn't make sense if the hard drive is mechanical. USB 3 caps a mechanical hard drive out quite well. Unless you don't have a USB 3 port but you do have a Thunderbolt...
Seeing some chip side accessories would be nice. Graphics or CPU for example, but those companies don't seem very interested at the moment. I wish they were...
Personally I don't think there's much uptake with Thunderbolt because in most aspects there isn't a particular need for it.
And to be fair, Thunderbolt is really more future-resistant.
You don't need USB 3 for printers or mice either.
I'd think its pretty safe to say that Thunderbolt is much better for HDDs and SSDs.
However Thunderbolt is not better for HDD's unless you do not have a USB 3.0 port. I think I may have stated that.
I'll give you the SSD Thunderbolt connection, however I believe I said that also.
I'm really interested in chipset Thunderbolt integration. That's not from me, I believe Sol was the first to mention it on this site. That is what I believe the future of Thunderbolt should be. That's just me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Vadania
How many accessories actually need or would utilize Thunderbolt to its potential?
Having a Thunderbolt printer, mouse, trackpad, and even hard drive doesn't make sense if the hard drive is mechanical. USB 3 caps a mechanical hard drive out quite well. Unless you don't have a USB 3 port but you do have a Thunderbolt...
Seeing some chip side accessories would be nice. Graphics or CPU for example, but those companies don't seem very interested at the moment. I wish they were...
Personally I don't think there's much uptake with Thunderbolt because in most aspects there isn't a particular need for it.
Do you mean an external cpu? Thunderbolt isn't near fast enough or designed for that. The gpu concept is also unlikely. It's not just developing the additional hardware to make it work. You would need thunderbolt specific drivers for something where desktops still do a better job. Pushing things outside the box to me flows counter to the overall direction computing has taken as long as I've followed it.
Drivers can be made quickly in comparison to hardware. They're not really that tough to make.
I know it's not likely to be seen soon commercially, but it can be done. Even just adding something that takes the strain off of the C or G PU would still be nice.
I have to remember sometimes that what I see in my mind isn't always an immediate solution. The only thing that's bothering me is that this was a class discussion almost two years ago and several models were made that had functionality. So when I've already seen it work, why isn't it there?
I do understand that they sold their projects, but why so long to market when we were taught 10 weeks?
Your comment comes across excessively anecdotal. You say the technology itself is a disaster which you follow up with I bought and I have comments. If you had an Apple Thunderbolt Display with a newer Mac notebook would you still feel the same way? Are there external monitors that can do what the ATD does using USB 3.0? Since it's using the mDP for TB and can't very well remove the option for an external monitor from a notebook where does the disaster come into play? I currently don't use either of my external monitor options with my iMac or MBP but I'd certainly not want to give that for an extra USB 3.0 port.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AppleInsider
"We think that this year it's going to expand even further.".
You THINK it'll expand this year!
It's new tech, don't stifle manufacturers or it'll just die, no matter how good it is. It's all about uptake.
We need quantity to create competition to bring down the artificially inflated prices.
I mentioned to the Apple store staff the irony of them not carrying any Thunderbolt drives, and then went to PC World, who didn't stock a single one either, despite carrying Apple gear. Finally tried John Lewis, no luck there either! (In fact, all stores stocked the same drives, Western Digital Passport/Studio drives. Not much competition!)
So I have an MBA with NO backup. Being I have over 1 million files and 25 years of work on it's 256GB SSD, I have just done some research into the best online backup service, and am going to abandon using a hard drive from now on and signup for (drum roll)...
Crashplan.
It has got great reviews and appears to tick most of the boxes, even if not as good as Dropbox and others for more touchy feely features such as sharing/collaboration etc. It is mature and sensible.
Who needs USB/Thunderbolt when you have the cloud?
1) Cloud storage has plenty of advantages but having to restore up to 250GB quickly is not one of them. Even over a WLAN that can a daunting task.
2) I think one of the holdups with TB enclosures may be certification from Intel since the whole device needs to get certified. There are plenty of 2.5" TB drives that aren't that expensive. Surely more than USB 3.0 but certainly much, much faster than cloud backups and restores that could make all the difference depending on your needs. There are also Ethernet connected drives or a thunderbolt Dock that has USB 3.0. Do your external drives also have Firewire you can leverage that for local storage on my MBA with an adapter.
There are USB 3 Express Cards.