You state that the Air's SuperDrive doesn't need the extra power, but I believe this to be incorrect for two reasons: the first is that other DVD R/W drives need it, hence the need for extra power adaptors or Y cables, and the fact the drive doesn't work off a standard powered USB port even when connected to the Air.
Second, you're basing this on information gained from the System Profiler, which is reporting power usage of 500ma. However, Profiler reports the same number if the drive is connected to the Air and doing nothing, and if reading, and if burning a disk.
Which leads me to believe that it's simply reporting the USB maximum.
For some reason, Apple doesn't support the new SuperDrive on anything other than the Air. There's no obvious physical reason for this; our previous observation that Apple was using a higher powered bus to drive the SuperDrive turned out to be wrong. It uses the standard 500mA USB power, and when plugged into other Macs, it shows up as a recognized USB device (below, plugged into a MacBook Pro).
All that appears to be missing is the software driver.
If this is really true, then the drive should work when attached to the Air via a powered hub.
Has anyone tried this test yet?
Quote:
Originally Posted by nagromme
As for the SuperDrive, I plan to wait until the day I NEED an optical drive--I won't spend $99 "just in case." I can have one in my hands within hours should a need arise that Remote Disc can't meet.
Or, for that matter, use a third-party USB DVD burner. Sure, it will need an external power supply, but it will be compatible with all your computers. Unless you think you're going to need it while traveling, the external power brick shouldn't be a real problem.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JeffDM
It's the same idea but extended to a different network medium. That would be like patenting booting over TokenRing. And then patenting booting over wired Ethernet. Or patenting booting over a fiber optic network. Most of a networking implementation is supposed to be agnostic of the physical layer.
I'm not so sure the two are comparable.
Traditional network-boot systems involve putting a disk image (typically floppy-sized) on a server somewhere. The boot ROM uses BOOTP/DHCP to auto-configure an IP address and get boot parameters, followed by a TFTP file transfer to read the disk image. It then mounts the image in-memory and boots from that.
The Apple solution appears to be different. It would appear that the ROM is actually mounting the remote disk and booting directly from this network-mounted volume, and not from a disk image mounted from RAM. This may be something patentable.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ahmlco
You state that the Air's SuperDrive doesn't need the extra power, but I believe this to be incorrect for two reasons: the first is that other DVD R/W drives need it, hence the need for extra power adaptors or Y cables, and the fact the drive doesn't work off a standard powered USB port even when connected to the Air.
Have you personally tested this? See my question, above. Speculation and quoting blogs is all great, but no substitute for hard data.
BTW, did you write the isights.org article you linked to? Your message is an almost-verbatim quote from it.
As I see it the problem with the superdrive is that it kills one of the most inportant interfaces of the Air.
Someone needs to make a superdrive with an internal USB hub and maybe some of the other lacking ports that people may want. Like better Audio Out and Audio in. Maybe another external drive like a 1.8" 160gb for backup. But have at least 2 USB ports available for other stuff.
Comments
i was thinking a small USB hub + superdrive + ethernet + extra ports could almost act as a fakey "dock" system. if it is possible that is.
thanks!
Second, you're basing this on information gained from the System Profiler, which is reporting power usage of 500ma. However, Profiler reports the same number if the drive is connected to the Air and doing nothing, and if reading, and if burning a disk.
Which leads me to believe that it's simply reporting the USB maximum.
See: Fixing The Air #2: The SuperDrive
Has anyone tried this test yet?
As for the SuperDrive, I plan to wait until the day I NEED an optical drive--I won't spend $99 "just in case." I can have one in my hands within hours should a need arise that Remote Disc can't meet.
Or, for that matter, use a third-party USB DVD burner. Sure, it will need an external power supply, but it will be compatible with all your computers. Unless you think you're going to need it while traveling, the external power brick shouldn't be a real problem.
It's the same idea but extended to a different network medium. That would be like patenting booting over TokenRing. And then patenting booting over wired Ethernet. Or patenting booting over a fiber optic network. Most of a networking implementation is supposed to be agnostic of the physical layer.
I'm not so sure the two are comparable.
Traditional network-boot systems involve putting a disk image (typically floppy-sized) on a server somewhere. The boot ROM uses BOOTP/DHCP to auto-configure an IP address and get boot parameters, followed by a TFTP file transfer to read the disk image. It then mounts the image in-memory and boots from that.
The Apple solution appears to be different. It would appear that the ROM is actually mounting the remote disk and booting directly from this network-mounted volume, and not from a disk image mounted from RAM. This may be something patentable.
You state that the Air's SuperDrive doesn't need the extra power, but I believe this to be incorrect for two reasons: the first is that other DVD R/W drives need it, hence the need for extra power adaptors or Y cables, and the fact the drive doesn't work off a standard powered USB port even when connected to the Air.
Have you personally tested this? See my question, above. Speculation and quoting blogs is all great, but no substitute for hard data.
BTW, did you write the isights.org article you linked to? Your message is an almost-verbatim quote from it.
As I see it the problem with the superdrive is that it kills one of the most inportant interfaces of the Air.
Someone needs to make a superdrive with an internal USB hub and maybe some of the other lacking ports that people may want. Like better Audio Out and Audio in. Maybe another external drive like a 1.8" 160gb for backup. But have at least 2 USB ports available for other stuff.
Kinda like a USB doc of some sort.
Thanks
GOrdon