Apple's new MacBook Pros can boot from media in SD card slot

1235»

Comments

  • Reply 81 of 85
    bigpicsbigpics Posts: 1,397member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Haggar View Post


    And what about people with professional cameras that use Compact Flash cards?



    already kind of answered, but if the camera's not plugged into or wirelessly connected to your MacBook, a $10 Compact Flash USB adaptor from Radio Shack will get you there......
  • Reply 82 of 85
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by brucep View Post


    I will still burn cds and dvd's for friends and I will still burn dvd for my own archives .DVD back up storage is forever.



    I wouldn't trust a DVD for storage of important data for many years. After a few years I would transfer the data to another medium. SD cards are a better solution for long term storage of photos, music, etc. The price has dropped a lot in recent years while capacity keeps increasing, and they are a more stable long term storage solution than DVD.
  • Reply 83 of 85
    mactrippermactripper Posts: 1,328member
    Quote:

    The company notes that the new MacBook Pros have a maximum speed of 240 Mbit/s for SD media using the SD card slot, which easily exceeds the transfer rate of most SD media. For example, Class 2 media has a maximum transfer rate of 4 Mbit/s; Class 4 media has a maximum transfer rate of 4.8 Mbit/s; and Class 6 media has a maximum transfer rate of 45 Mbit/s.



    Any SD card that conforms to the SD 1.x and 2.x standards should work in the slots, though they also accept cards that are Standard SD (4 MB to 4 GB) and SDHC (4 GB to 32 GB)



    Also the Mac will support SD 1.x and 2.x type cards that exceed the 30GB max capacity of the SDHC.



    So the..



    New SDXC (up to 2TB) cards with exFAT not supported

    New SDXC (up to 2TB) cards re-formatted for OS X (w/GUID) supported , but limited in bus speed.



    ...new MacBook Pros have a maximum speed of 240 Mbit/s for SD media



    However the new SDXC can handle 104-300 MB/sec.



    Which, if my math is correct, is 10x faster than the new MacBook Pro w/SD can handle. (and apx. twice as fast as a 7,200 RPM hard drive.)



    So booting from a SD card will remain rather slow until Apple releases a newer Mac with a faster SD bus speed. 5x acceptable, 10x preferred.



    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3553

    http://www.sdcard.org/developers/tech/sdxc



    Plus to be a acceptable boot/backup medium, the SD card should be flush with the case, with a spring release. So we can keep it in there all the time.
  • Reply 84 of 85
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by MacTripper View Post


    Also the Mac will support SD 1.x and 2.x type cards that exceed the 30GB max capacity of the SDHC.



    So the..



    New SDXC (up to 2TB) cards with exFAT not supported

    New SDXC (up to 2TB) cards re-formatted for OS X (w/GUID) supported , but limited in bus speed.



    ...new MacBook Pros have a maximum speed of 240 Mbit/s for SD media



    However the new SDXC can handle 104-300 MB/sec.



    Which, if my math is correct, is 10x faster than the new MacBook Pro w/SD can handle. (and apx. twice as fast as a 7,200 RPM hard drive.)



    So booting from a SD card will remain rather slow until Apple releases a newer Mac with a faster SD bus speed. 5x acceptable, 10x preferred.



    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3553

    http://www.sdcard.org/developers/tech/sdxc



    Plus to be a acceptable boot/backup medium, the SD card should be flush with the case, with a spring release. So we can keep it in there all the time.



    I can?t imagine that Apple would support SDXC out of the gate. The speed of 104MBps is slated for sometime soon with 300MBps being for something in the future, but those are just specs, we can?t start expecting a future tech to be ready immediately just because it?s Apple implementing it. The fastest I?ve read about is only 50MBps for a 32GB card, that is 80% faster than the 30MBps available now, but it?s no where near max of the new SDXC spec of 10x.



    The use of SD cards seems somewhat rushed, but that is just my opinion. While I don?t see a real need for a flush card as I doubt that Apple would expect you to boot your OS from the card, I don?t see it as not being possible in the future, especially if Apple removes the optical drive. There just isn?t any room if you look at the iFixit breakdown. Even the 13? had to make a lot changes, like moving the ports to the back and removing the line-in to get the FW800 and SD Card slot in there.



    Personally, I?m more interested by the possibilities of using SD cards for OS installs. If we see the MBA and Mac desktops with an SD card slot in the future then I think it?s pretty imminent.
  • Reply 85 of 85
    sdw2001sdw2001 Posts: 18,027member
    http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/20/b...ed-car-stereo/



    SD card stereo "reader." This article is from 2007. As I said it just never occurred to me before. Having an SD card stereo option in the car, at work (etc) would pretty much negate the need for CDs, iPod cables, docks, etc. Another cool idea: SD Card Video.
Sign In or Register to comment.