Posted on 08/20/2013 7:31:56 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Texas Instruments just put a chip through the heart of Intel’s Thunderbolt folly with their new HD3SS2521 DockPort controller. This little $1.85 chip both vastly simplifies the user experience and shines a harsh light on what Intel can’t do with a closed and 75x more expensive solution.
If you haven’t been paying attention, DockPort is the sane and open answer to Intel’s still broken and anti-user Light Peak/Thunderbolt interface. Formerly called Lightning Bolt, DockPort was AMD’s answer to the non-solution that Intel tried to spin Thunderbolt as. Several years in Thunderbolt is achieving some of the features promised at release but the important ones will never happen. One major bug, channel bonding, is mostly fixed, but the rest aren’t even being addressed because they are technically impossible. Meanwhile DockPort just works right and is actually useful to users.
DockPort is pretty simple, take a USB3 signal, a DisplayPort 1.2 signal, and enough power to run a laptop, then route it out over a standard DisplayPort cable. On top of that the TI HD3SS2521 adds a USB2 and I2C channel, something that is probably in the DockPort spec but we didn’t notice it last time we looked. In any case it takes what already exists and users like and puts it on one inexpensive cable. The cost of the TI chip? $1.85, more than the $1 we estimated earlier but for first silicon that is not a bad number. As soon as a second player comes out with silicon, this is sure to crater to $1 or below.
Compare this to Intel’s Thunderbolt. Even overlooking the fact that it does not actually work right in the overwhelming majority of devices out there now, it still is a non-starter.
(Excerpt) Read more at semiaccurate.com ...
This is good
A cheap way to dock to ANY setup using this
go to work- plug in
come home- plug in
Intel was stupid to make it a $100 option
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Posted on May 25, 2013
AMD’s Lightning Bolt record is finally out in a product and it could be a really good thing for finish users. Unless Intel quashes it like a final few attempts, this one should be a no-brainer on your subsequent laptop.
bttt
An' it look like dis.
I am still not sure what a “docking port” is. lolz
Well it has to be Good.
Maybe it attaches to your dongle. :)
I still don’t get the point of having up to 5 monitors, but to each his own. Sounds like Intel had a huge brainfart making their version overly complicated and overly expensive
Maybe it attaches to your dongle. :)
I had something attached to my dongle once, I didn’t like it.
It's something that allows you to attach your laptop or tablet to a full-size monitor, keyboard, regular mouse, and other USB devices, for when you are using your laptop at a desk. TI's chip also allows the DockPort to supply battery-charging power to the laptop, and all this via a single cable that plugs into your laptop.
I lost my dongle...
For surfing on FR, you don't need lots of monitors. Sometimes, when you are doing serious work that involves having many windows up, it's very useful. I have two monitors attached to my laptop at work.
The Magic of AMD’s Lightning Bolt
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Now called Dockport.
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Also this article:
DockPort solution enables USB, power over single cable
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TI's latest interface solution enables system designers to create smaller, more affordable docking stations that connect and synchronise computers with LCD monitors, dongles, keyboard/mouse, Gigabit Ethernet, storage, audio speakers, DVD/Blu-ray media player and smartphone.
I guess you could also build an X-Wing fighter simulator with all those monitors
Or a Predator controller station.
its something you hook your computer laptop to... so you can connect a home TV or monitor or two, internet cable, speakers, usb ports, etc etc...
you just plug in and everything is all set to go
i saw a setup with 8 monitors running microsoft flight simulator - it was awesome because you have major widw forward view AND side view out your airplane windows
That is the image in the head, flight sim, tank sim, air combat sim, space sim...
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