Ever since Thunderbolt I/O made its way into the new 2011 MacBook Pros, there has been a profound lack of hardware to utilize the features of the new port. A new report has surfaced, however, indicating that the first devices to incorporate the new technology could hit shelves next week.
Final Cut Pro X, which is also rumored to be announced next week, will likely be able to take advantage of the new technology on existing Thunderbolt-capable hardware, which currently is limited to the 2011 MacBook Pro, which has 1 port, and the new 2011 iMac, the 27″ model of which has 2 Thunderbolt ports.
This leaves out the main machine that most professionals would probably use Final Cut Pro X with (and make full use of Thunderbolt I/O with) – The Mac Pro. Further, with several rumors (like this one, and this one) suggesting that a refresh of the Mac Pro (and Mac Mini) could come soon, I wouldn’t be surprised if that refreshed happened sooner rather than later, perhaps alongside the release of Final Cut Pro X.
Thunderbolt is a new technology co-developed by Apple and Intel, which enables 10Gbps in a dual-channel configuration (both for sending and receiving data) using the same connector as Mini DisplayPort. In addition to being lightning fast, it support daisy chaining of up to 7 devices per port, meaning you need fewer connections to plug in more devices.
So fair, the main players to announce Thunderbolt-capable hardware are Matrox, LaCie, and Promise, each of which have announced devices that offer blood-curdling speed and performance.
