Promise Pegasus R6 & Mac Thunderbolt Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi on July 8, 2011 2:01 AM ESTThe Thunderbolt Cable
Despite the $999 - $1999 price tag of the Promise Pegasus, it does not ship with a Thunderbolt cable. Apple currently offers a 2 meter long Thunderbolt cable for $49. As iFixit discovered this is an active cable with a Genum GN2033 transceiver in each connector:
Gennum GN2033 Transceiver in Apple's Thunderbolt cable - Image Courtesy iFixit
Thanks to all of the added components in the cable each connector is approximately 50.8mm long, much longer than the end of a standard DisplayPort cable.
The Genum transceiver and auxiliary components do generate heat under load. Using an IR thermometer I measured a connector surface temperature of 27.6C at the end plugged into my test MacBook Pro. The end plugged into the Pegasus R6 was warmer (presumably because of its close proximity to the drive cage) at 32.9C. Neither is too hot to handle but both are warmer than you typically expect from a cable plugged into the side (or back) of your computer.
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Spazweasel - Friday, July 8, 2011 - link
$50 too much for a cable? Psshh. Children these days don't remember $75-100 SCSI-3 and UltraSCSI cables. These things are expensive for good reason.You want the highest performance, you pay to play. That's always been the case.
tzhu07 - Friday, July 8, 2011 - link
The phrase, "you get what you pay for" is generally true as a rule of thumb, but in the computer and consumer electronics industry, that has for the most part been untrue.Case in point: The high price of Monster cables having no performance advantage over the same type of cables one can find on newegg at a much lower price.
Apple just has this technology cornered....for now.
tzhu07 - Friday, July 8, 2011 - link
Well, I should say untrue in the computer and consumer electronics cable market.darwinosx - Friday, July 8, 2011 - link
The technology is Intel's not Apples. Intel determines the licensing fees.Samus - Friday, July 8, 2011 - link
Yes, but like SCSI, Apple was its only mainstream delivery vehicle. Back in the 80's and 90's, SCSI interfaces were reserved for servers, ultra high end workstations, and Apple computers. They always push the bleeding edge, which is possibly the only thing I respect about Apple.Justin Case - Saturday, July 9, 2011 - link
This has nothing to do with "pushing the bleeding edge". This has to do with giving Apple an "excuse" to remove USB ports from their iToys, thus locking out 3rd party accessory manufacturers (Thunderbolt is far too expensive to be competitive, unless you have a special deal like Apple has with Intel).The Mac hasn't been Apple's main focus for a long time; it's all about iOS and its ecosystem, now.
haley2011 - Sunday, July 10, 2011 - link
okMySchizoBuddy - Sunday, July 10, 2011 - link
doesn't the article specifically say that thunderbolt is free to license.Isn't Promise Pegasus a 3rd part manufacturer. Do you have any source claiming that Promise has a special deal with Apple.
Sony has thunderbolt ports in it's laptop as well.
Focher - Sunday, July 10, 2011 - link
Besides that you give away your bias of anything from Apple, TB isn't an Apple technology. It's an Intel one. What I find ironic is the USB versus TB arguments. First, it's a false choice. Even Apple has offered both FireWire and USB ports for years on their machines. It's only recently that FireWire has started to be removed from models. There's no current indication that USB will be dropped by Apple. Second, in specific regards to USB 3.0 I don't see the argument versus TB device availability. Neither have much market penetration yet, so only time will tell how each of them will do - and both could do fine or both could fail.MobiusStrip - Tuesday, July 12, 2011 - link
iOS devices are toys, but they already lack USB ports. They don't have any proper developer- or user-accessible I/O, so you think Apple's going to put Thunderbolt ports on them?NO. Apple has created a whole line of mobile devices that are ironically isolated from the world around them.