Intel launched the thunderbolt ready upgrade program, Asus is the first participant

[snowComet]

To prompt thunderbolt, Intel started an initiative called thunderbolt ready. The idea is, consumers can buy a thunderbolt ready motherboards, if they need to upgrade to thunderbolt,they just need to buy a thunderbolt pci-e card, and then they could enjoy the benefits from thunderbolt.

The first participant of this initiative is Asus, as the first thunderbolt ready motherboard is the z87-pro, and the first thunderbolt card is the Asus thunderboltEX 2, which is based on the thunderbolt 2 technology, and will be available in December, but still no words on pricing of the thunderbolt card. Asus also planned to have more thunderbolt ready motherboards in 2014.

But does it means x79 boards/ dual xeon workstation boards can use this thunderbolt card? Currently no. Thunderbolt cards still need a GPIO header, which if the thunderboltEX 2 is usung the same header as the first gen thunderbolt card, then a tb_header is necessary for using the thunderbolt card. The header is used to control cards' power state, signaling and device hot plugging events to the motherboard’s BIOS. Problem is this header can only be found in several Asus z77 and z87 motherboards (and possibly some Asus AMD motherboards?? I'm not so sure about that), none of any x79 boards or dual xeon boards, even the latest x79 boards like the x79 deluxe and rampage 4 black edition, has this header. So unless there are new thunderbolt cards with a more common header like usb, or there are new workstation motherboards that support the tb_header, we still can't have thunderbolt on a x79/dual xeon board...

http://blogs.intel.com/technology/2013/11/intel-announces-thunderbolt-ready-upgrade-program-for-pc-motherboards-desktops-and-workstation-computers/

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Intel-Announces-Thunderbolt-Ready-Program-to-Promote-the-20-GB-s-Interface-399553.shtml

[Sarcasm]

Thunderbolt is like Displayport. A great idea on paper, but does anyone actually use either?

[LifesCompanion]

I thought ASUS had already released a Thunderbolt ready motherboard last year(ish). 

The only issue I see with Thunderbolt is the pricing... everything related to it is just so expensive... cables, external HDDs, etc. but Thunderbolt itself is awesome. 

 

Thunderbolt is like Displayport. A great idea on paper, but does anyone actually use either?

You can daisy chain monitors and what not so you have less cables to manage, etc. if it wasn't so bloody expensive, I would love to use Thunderbolt 

[digitalnav]

I really hope Thunderbolt takes off. 

[JAKEBAB]

yes finally ive been waiting for ages for this when i saw the first gen from asus i thought it was cool and then sad when it never made it to market but finally intel is letting them do it yea buddy i really hope thunderbolt prices come down and it takes off i would love to have a thunderbolt nas or a couple of them to daisy chain.

[HaZardousLP]

Thunderbolt is like Displayport. A great idea on paper, but does anyone actually use either?

 

I use DP!

 

Asus Pro Art monitor came with the cable though, that's the main reason

[whatthe_fuzz]

Thunderbolt is like Displayport. A great idea on paper, but does anyone actually use either?

 

Only us DP because

 

1. DVID was screwy

 

2. I like the locking mechanism

[CapnCrunch]

removed

[EChondo]

Thunderbolt is like Displayport. A great idea on paper, but does anyone actually use either?

Displayport is the best connector. HDMI is just old and isn't in the times. I would prefer DVI, but that is now becoming a bottleneck with 4k.

 

Displayport will be relevant more in a couple years, doubt it on Thunderbolt though.

[beebskadoo]

Thunderbolt is cool, but not practical.

[That Norwegian Guy]

ASUS already have a native Z87 Thunderbolt card.

[mr moose]

I think thunderbolt opens up some exciting avenues to reduce the cost of expensive medical scanners.  If I remember right, some 256 slice ct scanners can produce up to 800Mb of data per second, which is why CT scanners are so expensive, it all requires custom made high bandwidth processing units.  But if you can buy a cable from radioshack and plug the scanner straight into off the shelf pc parts for processing then that would create some amazing options for reduction in costs. 

[Glenwing]

Kind of silly that the highest end platform (x79) cannot utilize the highest end connection. I understand it's a physical limitation, but of all the people to really use TB I would think it would be people who use x79 in a workplace environment.

 

Doesn't the upcoming mac pro utilize Xeons? And I believe those machines have 6 TB ports.

 

The Mac Pros have their GPUs integrated, not on a separate card.  With an X79 motherboard, the GPU and the GPU board could be anything; whereas the Mac Pro has a set option for the graphics, and they can be tightly integrated and the circuitry and controllers from Thunderbolt can connect to what they need to.  If you don't know what the GPU or board circuitry will be ahead of time, it is not possible to connect thunderbolt with it.

 

The hot plug detect, and other things, and basically the entire data transfer process is sort of borrowed from the DisplayPort protocol, so without that in place Thunderbolt is missing things that it requires to operate.  And when you have a swappable graphics card there is no way to connect the board's Thunderbolt controllers with the DisplayPort components on the card, since it could be any card of any layout, seated in any slot.  Not predictable like a pre-built OEM machine with like 3 non-swappable GPU options.  So it's not that Thunderbolt can't be done without CPU on-die graphics, it just needs some kind of integrated graphics that won't change, even if it's somewhere else on the board and not on the CPU.  It just can't be done with discrete graphics cards, that's all.

[Kuzma]

The Mac Pros have their GPUs integrated, not on a separate card.  With an X79 motherboard, the GPU and the GPU board could be anything; whereas the Mac Pro has a set option for the graphics, and they can be tightly integrated and the circuitry and controllers from Thunderbolt can connect to what they need to.  If you don't know what the GPU or board circuitry will be ahead of time, it is not possible to connect thunderbolt with it.

 

The hot plug detect, and other things, and basically the entire data transfer process is sort of borrowed from the DisplayPort protocol, so without that in place Thunderbolt is missing things that it requires to operate.  And when you have a swappable graphics card there is no way to connect the board's Thunderbolt controllers with the DisplayPort components on the card, since it could be any card of any layout, seated in any slot.  Not predictable like a pre-built OEM machine with like 3 non-swappable GPU options.  So it's not that Thunderbolt can't be done without CPU on-die graphics, it just needs some kind of integrated graphics that won't change, even if it's somewhere else on the board and not on the CPU.  It just can't be done with discrete graphics cards, that's all.

unless of course Intel made a deal with AMD and Nvidia to add a thunderbolt header onto their GPUs!

[Glenwing]

unless of course Intel made a deal with AMD and Nvidia to add a thunderbolt header onto their GPUs!

 

Indeed If they really went all out in a perfect world, they could integrate Thunderbolt controllers into their chipsets, and AMD and NVIDIA would also integrate Thunderbolt controllers onto all their cards, and it would all take place over the PCI Express bus seamlessly and output from Thunderbolt/MiniDP ports on the back of the GPU... Somehow I doubt it will happen anytime soon though

[RockerBug17]

It's about damn time! I chose to buy a Maximus V Gene last year because of the Thunderbolt expansion option. After scouring the internet, the best I could ever piece together was that the TBEX card ASUS showed last year was stuck in certification hell. But now it looks like we will finally get something. I just hope it works with Z77 boards.

 

From the pictures I've seen, Z77 and Z87 boards with the tb_header should be able to use this expansion card. That could explain why ASUS kept putting the connection on Z87 boards despite there not being an expansion card on the market.