USB3 to Firewire 400

[Brad_]

>>> With regards Apple, USB, FireWire 400 and 800 are all bootable interfaces, as is wireless.

 

That's true. But who would want to boot and have their system running from an external USB 2 or FW 400 drive

with interface transfer rates about a third of contemporary drives? Emergency use restoring a disk, perhaps. FW800 is a hit, but not nearly as objectionable. eSata would be great, but it's not bootable.

 

>>> Why would Apple not, eventually, adopt USB 3?

 

Apple design strategy has never been about what features *could* be included. It's more about feature exclusion (I could

list a dozen examples), commensurate with embracing their own high performance solutions

(inventing/adopting FW in the early '90s for example).

 

They're fully behind the performance, and more importantly the extreme flexibility, that Thunderbolt provides - they were a contributor to the technology with Intel. USB

3 isn't going to happen. If it were important to their strategy it would be on machines now - not that tough.

[scott_ferris]

For $20 peripherals Thunderbolt absolutely does not make more sense than USB 3. Thunderbolt makes huge sense for

large external hard drives, additional monitors, and video streaming, especially for laptops with limited port space.

[john_macpherson]

<p>Thanks folks! </p>

 

<blockquote>

<p ><a href="../photodb/user?user_id=6035623">Larry West</a> <a href="../member-status-icons"><img title="Subscriber" src="../v3graphics/member-status-icons/sub2.gif" alt="" /></a>, Jan 21, 2012; 08:34 p.m.</p>

</blockquote>

 

<blockquote>

<p>Sonnet Technologies has been making Mac expansion products for ages, even before the PowerPC era. They have the <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.sonnettech.com/product/allegrousb3pcie.html" target="_blank">Allegro USB 3.0 PCIe card</a> with two external USB 3.0 ports for your MacPro.<br>

Not having a MacPro, I haven't tried it, but if anyone can make it work, it's Sonnet.</p>

</blockquote>

 

<p>Thanks Larry, checked them out and there appears to be a lot of problems with it. Looks like simply accepting the longer write times is the easiest solution and ensure future drives have more connection options!</p>

[waltflanagan]

<p>Right now USB 3 requires an additional chip on the motherboard or an add in card. I've seen a couple of Macbook teardowns and there is not much space left on the board. Sometime in spring 2012 Intel will release their Series 7 chipset with native USB 3 support built in. I suppose Apple could choose not to connect it to external ports but that would be really lame.</p>

[Brad_]

>>> I suppose Apple could choose not to connect it to external ports but that would be really lame.

 

For the last three (or is it four?) generations of MacPro desktop computers Apple has not connected the two on-

motherboard eSata I/O headers to external connectors (I added my own cables terminating in twin eSata

connectors in a slot cover).

 

Like I mentioned above, Apple design philosophy is about carefully considering and deciding what's not

necessary (in their opinion of course) removing features, rather than adding everything possible.

[scott_ferris]

If you get an old MacPro with two DVD drives then one of the two extras is used. If you buy a new one with two DVD

drives there are no unused motherboard connectors, the current model only has one additional socket.

 

Having said that, I always considered that a good thing, having expansion options, now you can't configure a new MacPro

with two DVD drives and a 2.5" SSD boot drive directly off the motherboard.