Production of Apple Thunderbolt Accessories Begins to Heat Up.

Currently there isn't much on the market for Thunderbolt Accessories for Apple computers, but a few Thunderbolt peripherals have finally become available for consumer hands. Some critiques cite Thunderbolt's development as similar to FireWire (an excellent idea that possibly will go nowhere), but many computer users remain optimistic. With its 10 Gbps potential bandwidth Thunderbolt accessories still could stand to redefine high-speed functionality for external computer accessories. 

Promise Pegasus R4 4-TB Thunderbolt RAID Array

The first major Thunderbolt peripheral to be released is the Promise Pegasus Thunderbolt enclosure for RAID. Their lineup of Thunderbolt arrays consist of two lines of 4 and 6 hard drive external enclosures. The small unit (the Pegasus R4) comes in a 4 and 8 TB configuration, while the more powerful Promise Pegasus R6 delivers either 6 or 8 terabytes of Thunderbolt storage. The Promise Pegasus Box is the first Thunderbolt RAID drive enclosure to be shipped for Mac, but many other models are soon to follow (such as the upcoming Sonnet Fusion RAID Thunderbolt Array).

External Thunderbolt hard drives shouldn't be too far off either. LaCie has announced development of the Little Big Disk, a high capacity mobile Thunderbolt hard disk (available with solid state drives or standard hard drives). While other companies have claimed support of the Thunderbolt port, LaCie is the only once currently set to release product with the summer of 2011.

Apple 5.9 ft Thunderbolt Cable

Thunderbolt cables have been released for the few existing products. As of right now the only manufacturer is Apple itself, making it a very pricey 6 ft Thunderbolt copper cable (around $50). However, this cable works not only as a high-speed data transfer line for external Thunderbolt accessories, it functions as an HDMI to HDMI cable. A Thunderbolt cable may also be use to activate target disk mode in order to boot one Thunderbolt mac from another. Unlike the previous MiniDisplayPort cabling, the Thunderbolt wire relies on active cabling. This, combined with firmware in the cable, make its impossible to use anything but an actual Thunderbolt cable with such devices.

Thunderbolt adapters are quasi-developed. Intel Thunderbolt theoretically has the potential to be compatible with most device interfaces (with the proper converter), but definite release of these Thunderbolt adapters has been slow (to type the least). Matrox has announced support for Thunderbolt on their MX02 Family of devices by September of 2011, and its hoped that some other units like Thunderbolt to FireWire adapters have become available around then as well.

Apple MacBook Pro 13.3-Inch Laptop with Thunderbolt

About the most developed of Thunderbolt devices is the Thunderbolt computers themselves. The new interface for founds its way into the majority of Apples computer lineups. Currently the only Apples not featuring Mac Thunderbolt are the top of the line Mac Pro machine (but those should see an update sometime soon…).

The MacBook Air recently received a much needed update (in correspondence to the launch of OS X Lion)

This variation of the popular MacBook Air series finally delivers functionality and some degree of CPU to the slightly underpowered MacBook Air computer lineup. Until recently, these lightweight laptops lacked the features of less portable models. While these computers are as of yet to to have the capacity of a desktop machine, the lineup now sports its own class of benefits. New Intel dual core processors, flash storage made standard, and integrate Intel HD graphics all contribute to the MacBook being a versatile laptop (that still fits in an envelope).

 

(This time) Apple decided to deliver some of the functionality of their standard computer lineup to the MacBook Air series. Admittedly, the Intel i5 and i7 processors only range form 1.6-1.8 GHz dual core performance, but these computers still offer 5-7 hours of battery life. The integrate Intel HD 3000 Graphics offer 256 to 384 MB of 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM (shared with the onboard 2 or 4 GB memory) for high definition movies and some games. Most incredibly, Apple now manufactures the MacBook Air with integrated flash storage. These laptops rely on high-speed flash memory (integrated directly to the motherboard) to function as the startup disc and storage drive. This flash storage ranges from 64 to 256 GB and provides all the functionality of a SSD or and conventional hard disk. 

 

11.6-Inch MacBook Air Light Weight Laptop - Now Shipping with FaceTime and Intel Thunderbolt

 

Like the MacBook Pro series, the Air's also received an updated FaceTIme camera and a increase in screen resolution capabilities (now supporting up to 2560 by 1600 pixels on and external display). This coincides with the additional of a single Intel Thunderbolt port to each of the MacBook air models; granting each of these ultra-portable laptops access to high-speed data transfers and Mini DisplayPort monitors. It might now be the power-packed MacBook Pro, but the MacBook air now sports its own line of attributes to make it an extremely functional ultra-light laptop.