This seems like it might be a very unique case for notebook and AIO users that can't get an optical card in their system. Or maybe some company that has monitors placed too far away from their system for some presentation use.

Coming soon for the low, low, price of $1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

Time for Apple to release a Thunderbolt to 10 Gig Ethernet adaptor.

I have to say, I can't wait. It'll have to drop a price but I can definitely see Thunderbolt replace my current Firewire setup. I have Firewire backup drives in a safe against theft and (small) disasters.

The challenge at the moment is that you can't safely use Firewire over more than 5 meters. A 100 meter solution would even allow me store my backups at the neighbours.

This takes me back. In 1980 my Apple retail business was a reseller for Symbiotic Systems in the UK and installed hard drives with fibre optic cables that could run very long lengths, with repeaters when required, to network everything together. This was on Apple ][ computers and massive 10 and 20 MB hard drives! LOL

I like the idea of Thunderbolt. However... I don't think cable length is the problem.

Maybe a reduced license fee would make vendors more excited about making products for Thunderbolt. I dunno.

Thunderbolt has so much promise... I'd love to see it kick up a notch.

ascii 
Time for Apple to release a Thunderbolt to 10 Gig Ethernet adaptor.

I'm having trouble thinking of a valid use case. All desktop Macs still have ethernet; who is managing a workflow that requires gig-e from a portable Mac?

Michael Scrip 
I like the idea of Thunderbolt. However... I don't think cable length is the problem.
Maybe a reduced license fee would make vendors more excited about making products for Thunderbolt. I dunno.

Agreed. Firewire was supposed to be a much more universal connector, even doing what HDMI now does for home theater. Thunderbolt certainly has a better chance, thanks to Intel.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ascii 

Time for Apple to release a Thunderbolt to 10 Gig Ethernet adaptor.

I was just going to ask: when can I wire my house with this?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vorsos 

I'm having trouble thinking of a valid use case. All desktop Macs still have ethernet; who is managing a workflow that requires gig-e from a portable Mac?

Centralized data storage.  Think multiple household members watching different 4k videos streamed from a server (in a couple of years).  Think multiple computers backed up to centralized storage in a few minutes (rather than a few hours).

Thunderbolt was poised as an "optical" cable solution, so it's very interesting to see optical USB be released. Just yesterday I was arguing that optical was an advantage for Thunderbolt over USB when distance was a factor. Still is to an extent, but not nearly as much now.