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Originally Posted by pl001
Not a fan of the Thunderbolt port. What is the point of that? Almost all periphrials are USB.
Nice to see a decent 8" Windows tablet though.
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It's a desktop-grade port, really. Think of it as a standard docking port connector.
Plus, it carries video signals.
See, it's two. two ports in one!!!™
http://www.computerworld.com/s/artic...0?pageNumber=1
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Based on copper, the Thunderbolt specification contains two protocols: PCI Express (PCIe) and DisplayPort. The Thunderbolt chip switches between the two protocols to support varying devices. DisplayPort offers HD display support as well as eight channels of HD audio. A Thunderbolt connector has two full-duplex channels; each are bi-directional and capable of 10Gbps of throughput.
Intel sees Thunderbolt supporting high-speed storage devices such as RAID arrays, HD displays and PCIe expander boxes for laptops -- pretty much anything that can benefit from a really fast I/O.
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Salvator pointed to Thunderbolt-enabled products shown at the IDF conference earlier this month that included high-speed storage devices (RAID arrays), HD media capture, displays and a PCIe expander for laptops.
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USB has its uses but docking stations and video aren't among its strengths.
A portable computer with thunderbolt and a PCIe expansion box is effectively a desktop PC.