Sumitomo Electric's Thunderbolt Cable
by Anand Lal Shimpi on January 13, 2012 2:02 PM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
- Mac
- Apple
- Intel
- CES
- Thunderbolt
- CES 2012
Since the launch of Thunderbolt the only cable supplier has been Apple. Given that no current Thunderbolt devices come with a Thunderbolt cable (save Apple's own Thunderbolt Display which comes with one for video input), anyone who wanted to use Thunderbolt had to pick up a cable at the Apple store for $50. Sumitomo Electric started shipping its Thunderbolt cables at the end of last year and Intel had a pair at CES this week. They are functionally identical to Apple's cable but come in a dark grey instead of white. No word on pricing unfortunately, although I do know that there's a definite push to drive the cable cost down this year.
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cmircea - Friday, January 13, 2012 - link
Where is the Galaxy Nexus review? It's two weeks overdue the promised date! :<dmyster - Friday, January 13, 2012 - link
There is polite ways about requesting information. This is not one of them.I am sure Anand and his crew will get to it soon enough.
kjboughton - Friday, January 13, 2012 - link
Don't you have a book report you should be working on?hmurchison - Friday, January 13, 2012 - link
Come on man show proper netiquette. Off topic thread crapping is so 2005.Kristian Vättö - Friday, January 13, 2012 - link
From what I can see, it seems to be pretty much ready. However, Brian and Anand have had a lot to do at CES so that has pushed it. Should be out early next week at the latest, I guess. You can always ping Brian (@nerdtalker) in Twitter.kjboughton - Friday, January 13, 2012 - link
"...I do know that there's a definite push to drive the cable cost down this year."There's nothing to "drive down." The cost is manufacture one of these is probably already on the order of $0.25 or so. Initial tooling costs have already been allocated, otherwise it's just a couple strands of copper wire and an a jacket. Big whoop.
This is consumer price gouging at it's finest. Apple's been the only game in town up until now, which is why anyone who want's one must fork over 50 big ones. It's absolutely laughable to think it costs anywhere near this to make one. Look at it. It looks like a USB cable with a slightly different connector head.
ramuman - Friday, January 13, 2012 - link
I presume you didn't know they're active cables with a transceiver on both ends. Ykjboughton - Friday, January 13, 2012 - link
You are correct, Sir.I do say though...why put the transceivers in the cable, and not on the other sides of the interfaces??
Klimax - Saturday, January 14, 2012 - link
They contain cable specific tuning for high speed. Also enable change to optic without changing ports.DanNeely - Saturday, January 14, 2012 - link
Because the connection needed to send data several feet needs to be higher quality than one that only needs to send it an inch or two.