Apple releases MacBook Air EFI Firmware Update 2.1 with Thunderbolt Display support

Apple has issued an firmware update for new MacBook Air models that contains enabling support for the as yet unavailable new Thunderbolt Display.

The update for mid 2011 Thunderbolt MacBook Air models "resolves issues" with the new Thunderbolt Display and improves the performance of notebooks when operating in Thunderbolt Target Disk Mode.

The update also "includes fixes that enhance the stability of Lion Recovery from an Internet connection."

Apple notes that "After this update has successfully completed, your Boot ROM Version will be: MBA41.88Z.0077.B08.1109011050."

Apple originally announced the Thunderbolt Display alongside the new Thunderbolt MacBook Air models in July.

The new 27 inch display is the first to incorporate Thunderbolt cabling, which it uses to provide a single signal cable that supports video, audio for its built in speakers, and a digital interconnect for the display's three USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire 800 port, one Gigabit Ethernet port and a Thunderbolt port for daisy chaining up to five additional Thunderbolt devices.

MacBook Air models support one Thunderbolt display, while 2011 MacBook Pro notebooks and other Thunderbolt-based Macs with discrete graphics can support two of the displays.

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15 Comments

chabig

said about 12 years ago

"...while 2011 MacBook Pro notebooks and other Thunderbolt-based Macs with discrete graphics can support two of the displays."

Only the 15" and 17" models support two displays. The 13" MacBook Pro supports a single display.

nudist

said about 12 years ago

Hey Apple. Where the firmware fix for my MBP 2011 so it plays nice with my 2009 24 inch cinema display? A lot of us are still having random display problems and the Apple reps have been promising there's a fix in the works.

sflocal

said about 12 years ago

Well that's nice to know. My Thunderbolt display ships in three days and it would have been a surprise to say the least if something wasn't working quite right.

I'm seriously looking forward to trying this on my MBA!

sheff

said about 12 years ago

Apple should stick a hard drive and video card into these displays. Say 1TB and high end ATI. That way, when MBA is connected you can do some crazy graphics processor intensive work and save it to the display, instead of being limited by Air's small storage and low graphics processing power.

sflocal

said about 12 years ago

Quote:

Originally Posted by sheff

Considering these displays already cost a grand, adding extra hardware like that gets you into iMac territory. A 27" iMac already doubles as a second display.