What is Thunderbolt (Light Peak)? | Sync™ Blog – INTEL – Light Peak technology

I know this has been said before, but maybe this time it will be true.  You have two heavy weights –  Apple and Intel behind the technology and it just makes so much sense.  Remove all your ports on your systems and just have ONE for everything….

Originally this was the goal of USB, but it has failed due to performance and it not really being developed for Video.  Very interesting and Apple is the first to market with their new line of notebooks with the standard.  

I can see this taking hold very quickly, quicker then what the article below indicates – it’s too bad that they missed the current INTEL processor change-up as this technology might have been included in that refresh of systems from other major players like HP – DELL and Lenovo.  I think the next round of processor updates you will see both the Thunderbolt and USB on new systems and sometime next year USB will be removed from the picture completely.

What is Thunderbolt (Light Peak)? | Sync™ Blog.

GOOD BYE – USB

 In its initial out-of-the-lab incarnation, Thunderbolt can use either copper or fiber connections for 10Gbps bidirectional communication. That speed is 20 times faster than the theoretical limit of USB 2.0, 12 times faster than FireWire 800, and twice as fast as USB3. According to Intel, however, the 10Gbps isn’t just a theoretical peak speed, but usable bandwidth. This allows a single port to communicate with multiple devices simultaneously for a combined throughput of 10Gbps.

That 10Gbps is much faster than most current I/O technologies. With two devices pushing data at the maximum rate, you could back up a full Blu-ray movie in 30 seconds, or sync 64GB of music to a portable device in about a minute. Copying the entire contents of the Library of Congress in digital form—approximately 20TB of data—would take about 35 minutes.

Active electrical-only cables can be up to 3 meters (just under 10 feet) in length, similar to current FireWire and USB standards. Active optical cables, which use fiber for data transmission and copper for up to 10W of power, can be “tens of meters” in length. Passive fiber-only cables could potentially be hundreds of meters long. These lengths enable more flexible positioning between devices and computers instead of relying on specialized connections or relatively pokey wireless solutions.

Thunderbolt Technology Brief (PDF) (intel.com)

To get even more technical information take a look at the following POST: ars technica

CABLES – REFERENCE – How Long can you GO!

If your working with cabling all the time you don’t need to read this post as you will remember what the limits are, but lets face it if it is not your primary job or responsiblity keeping all those numbers in your head can sometimes be difficult.

Did you know that both CAT5 and CAT6 have the same limitations?  How long can USB cables be? etc…

Great article in PC MECH giving you the most popular cables lengths.

Category 5

Maximum length: 328 feet / 100 meters

Most people refer to this as ‘network cable’ or CAT-5 for short. This is still what most people use in the home for wired networking.

You will run into signal problems starting at around 250 feet if the cable is old, pulled too tightly, crimped in certain places, etc. In order to achieve full signal at maximum length, the cable must be installed properly from beginning to end.

You can extend the length of CAT-5 by using traditional network hubs. Old routers can also serve as hubs

Get the rest of the article from:

How Far Can That Wire Go?

USB Keys – Drive imaging for USB made easy!

More and more tech people are using USB keys to load up images on systems, it’s convenient and easy to carry with you.  Have you ever had to make multiple USB keys with images?

Well a simple to use FREE software tool available to create multiple USBimages for Windows.  Plug in your devices to your USB ports – as many as you want or can – select the image – press GO and walk away.  When you come back your done!

IMAGEUSB

Overview

ImageUSB is a free utility which lets you write an image concurrently to multiple USB Flash Drives. Capable of creating exact bit-level copies of USB Flash Drive (UFDs), ImageUSB is an extremely effective tool for the mass duplication of UFDs. ImageUSB can also be used to install OSFClone to a USB Drive for use with PassMark OSForensics™.

Unlike other USB duplication tools, ImageUSB can preserve all unused and slack space during the cloning process, including the Master Boot Record (MBR). ImageUSB can perform flawless mass duplications of all UFD images, including bootable UFDs.



Notebooks – Netbook vs Sub-Notebook for Education Dell 2100 vs Dell D430

 

	DELL 2100 Netbook	DELL D430 Sub-Notebook
Computing Power	Limited Usage Computing	Full Functioning Computing
Screen Size	10.1”	12.1”
Processor	Atom 270N	Core 2 Duo 1.2
Keyboard	Small	Full Size
Memory	1G	2G
Warranty	1YR Dell	3YR CDI
Battery	3 or 6 Cell – Half day Usage	NEW 9 Cell – Full Day Usage
Type	Open Box Dell	Off-Lease
O/S	WIN/XP	WIN/XP
ONLINE TESTING	Limited Usage	FULL USAGE

 Conclusion:

When you’re reviewing products the key to the success of any technology is productivity – You need to have a product that can fulfill many functions, increase productivity and reduce the time it takes to accomplish tasks.   The key limiting factor for a Netbook is the screen real-estate; this doesn’t allow the flexibility of working in multiple environments.  The productivity is compromised because of the increase in scrolling both up and down as well as across.  Please don’t get me wrong, the Netbook just like every other product has a place and is great at what it can do, but in Education and Business it has limitations that have to be consider. 

For our K12 customers the pricing of these two products are the same