New Sonnet Thunderbolt PCIe box for RedRocket - Available !

[Nils Ruinet]

Since I haven't seen anyone mentioning this on here (or I missed it), I just got an e-mail from Sonnet saying that their long awaited "echo express pro chassis" is available for pre-order, and will be shipping on the 8th of june. Price is $799. They say it's compatible with the Red Rocket card.

http://www.sonnettech.com/product/ec...sschassis.html

As far as I know it's the first Thunderbolt PCIe extension box that becomes available. Finally !

I ordered one, I hope I won't have to wait too long before it gets to France... ;)

[Tehben Dean]

I've been waiting for the Magma but looks like sonnet has beat them to it. In the end availability is what counts ;)
Just hope it's more reliable then the Echo Express....

[Blair S. Paulsen]

Wonder what would happen if I put a RedRocket and a Quadro4000 in the dual slot version and hooked it up to my 13" MacBookAir? Maybe daisy chain a Promise RAID via the TB loop through...

I have been waiting for the implementation of the optical TB interface before investing in TB hardware - anyone know the differential between current copper TB speeds and anticipated optical TB speeds? Timeline for shipping all the components of an optical TB infrastructure? Jeff K.? Gary A.?

Open question, does anyone see a more "server-ish" version of the TB expansion chassis concept? At the very least a chip in the expander box that would allow for data I/O to happen onboard without routing back through the host? Just thinking out loud...

Cheers - #19

[Tehben Dean]

Pretty sure Graphics Cards to not work with apple laptops at the moment. Hopefully apple addresses this.

Also noticed that the Sonnet is only 4x while the Magma is 2 8x and 1 4x....

[Nick Pasquariello]

I don't anticipate TB going optical for at least a few years. There haven't even been any public demos of an optical setup that I've seen. It's taken this long for TB to filter down this far, I'd say we're a solid 2+ years from optical TB, and that is being optimistic.

[Bruce Allen]

Wonder what would happen if I put a RedRocket and a Quadro4000 in the dual slot version and hooked it up to my 13" MacBookAir? Maybe daisy chain a Promise RAID via the TB loop through...

I have been waiting for the implementation of the optical TB interface before investing in TB hardware - anyone know the differential between current copper TB speeds and anticipated optical TB speeds? Timeline for shipping all the components of an optical TB infrastructure? Jeff K.? Gary A.?

Optical phase one is: just an optical cable with built-in electrical to optical converter at one end end optical to electrical converter at the other end.

Speeds will be the same as normal Thunderbolt.

Faster thunderbolt will be phase 2, in 2014 or so.

Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com

[Robert Bluemke]

Pretty sure Graphics Cards to not work with apple laptops at the moment. Hopefully apple addresses this.

Also noticed that the Sonnet is only 4x while the Magma is 2 8x and 1 4x....

I also noticed that it was only 4x, and Sonnet isn't exactly a model of stability when it comes to pro level products. Think I'm going to hold off and get the Magma.

[Jean Déraps]

But when will the Magma be available?

[Jeff Kilgroe]

The Sonnet units have been available for pre-order since NAB, actually just a bit before. I have the compact single-card version on order myself. According to those who have been testing them, they're rock-solid. So I'm hopeful... As I'm not a fan of most other Sonnet products. And of course, they have the larger version which takes two full-length cards.

Yes, it's only a single X4 (X16 electrical) slot in the compact Sonnet enclosure. Which is fine. That's all the bandwidth you can squeeze over a Thunderbolt channel as is. Actually, not true. You only get half of that on a single Thunderbolt channel. So The other guys placing X8 and multiple slots in their enclosures are just blowing marketing smoke up your skirt. ...Just sayin'

The RED Rocket will effectively run at half it's potential bandwidth in this Sonnet enclosure. Which is fine most of the time... In fact is going to be fine 99.9% of the time on an iMac or Macbook Pro where the CPUs couldn't process that much inbound data from the Rocket anyway.

[Robert Bluemke]

Really? I stand corrected, and I stand to save almost $200. Could be worse, thanks Jeff.