Mac USB3 vs ThunderBolt : Now vs Later
03/26/11 13:02 Filed in: Apple ThunderBolt
The history of Apple computer peripheral interfaces is long and varied. And the reason for all these different device interfaces over the years is simple: They provided the right technology for the right job - at the time.It may make good headlines to say "Apple and Intel Declare War On The USB Standard With ThunderBolt!" but the reality is this isn't a war, interfaces coexist and compliment each other, and much like FireWire that preceeded ThunderBolt -- USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 SuperSpeed will dominate the marketplace - in spite of some of the technical advantages and benefits that ThunderBolt provides.
Its best to think of ThunderBolt benefitting specific highly data-intensive devices and computing needs -- and USB3 delivering more affordable, more than 'good enough' backward compatible high-speed benefits to the rest of the computing masses. Both have a promising future for both the Mac and Windows PC platforms. (Especially when USB3 to ThunderBolt adapters become available and deliver the best of BOTH worlds.)
Many computer gadgets and gizmos DON'T EVEN NEED - OR CAN EVEN TAKE ADVANTAGE OF - THE BANDWIDTH of USB 3.0 SuperSpeed - let alone ThunderBolt's 10Gbps pipeline. Given that so many technologies like a single hard drive or SSD can't even max out either's pipeline, there's plenty of elbow-room on either of these busses for a vastly improved user experience. And ultimately, that matters more than tech specs.
CalDigit SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Drive For Mac and PC
12/20/10 11:20 Filed in: USB3 Drivers For OSX
Besides LaCie, the only other company offering SuperSpeed USB drives, OSX USB3 drivers and cards for select MacBook Pro (ExpressCard) and Macintosh Pro tower (PCI-e card) configurations to deliver a high speed backup solution today is CalDigit.
CalDigit AV 1TB Drive
USB3 and FireWire 800 Ports
For even greater storage capacity, a larger version - the CalDigit 2TB AV Drive External Hard Drive - USB 3.0, FireWire 800, for Mac & Windows
is also available.
CalDigit SuperSpeed PCI Express Card with USB 3.0 Drivers for Mac Pro
Unfortunately, Amazon doesn't list the CalDigit USB3 ExpressCard for MacBook Pro these drives need to be paired with - at this time. You may wish to buy direct from CalDigit at their website.
Note: Somewhat like LaCie, CalDigit keys their SuperSpeed drivers for Mac OSX Leopard to look for their specific CARD. But those drivers are reported to work on a wider range of 3rd party external USB3 drives. More drive options, fewer card options.
Conversely, LaCie's OSX driver actually works with a wider number of NEC-chipset based PCI and ExpressCards - however LaCie's driver is keyed to ONLY work with LaCie brand drives at this time. More card options, fewer drive options.
Confusing, huh? But that's life on the bleeding edge of SuperSpeed technology on the Mac platform. Pair vendors card and drive products for the most workable SuperSpeed on a Mac solution.
CalDigit AV 1TB Drive
USB3 and FireWire 800 Ports
For even greater storage capacity, a larger version - the CalDigit 2TB AV Drive External Hard Drive - USB 3.0, FireWire 800, for Mac & Windows
is also available.CalDigit SuperSpeed PCI Express Card with USB 3.0 Drivers for Mac Pro
Unfortunately, Amazon doesn't list the CalDigit USB3 ExpressCard for MacBook Pro these drives need to be paired with - at this time. You may wish to buy direct from CalDigit at their website.
Note: Somewhat like LaCie, CalDigit keys their SuperSpeed drivers for Mac OSX Leopard to look for their specific CARD. But those drivers are reported to work on a wider range of 3rd party external USB3 drives. More drive options, fewer card options.
Conversely, LaCie's OSX driver actually works with a wider number of NEC-chipset based PCI and ExpressCards - however LaCie's driver is keyed to ONLY work with LaCie brand drives at this time. More card options, fewer drive options.
Confusing, huh? But that's life on the bleeding edge of SuperSpeed technology on the Mac platform. Pair vendors card and drive products for the most workable SuperSpeed on a Mac solution.
Mac USB 3.0 Devices in Apple System Profiler
12/11/10 19:36 Filed in: Mac USB 3.0 Support
In the image below we see how Mac OSX USB3 SuperSpeed devices show up in Apple's System Profiler program as "USB Super-Speed Bus" alongside USB 2.0 High-Speed Bus and slower USB 1.1 bus entries.
When connected to a Mac Compatible USB 3.0
solution like LaCie's PCI or Express card and matching LaCie drive, a disclosure triangle will reveal the drive on the SuperSpeed bus.
When connected to a Mac Compatible USB 3.0
solution like LaCie's PCI or Express card and matching LaCie drive, a disclosure triangle will reveal the drive on the SuperSpeed bus.Mac USB 3.0 Drivers For LaCie PCIe Card, ExpressCard and Drives
11/22/10 23:36 Filed in: Mac USB3 Support
LaCie is aggressively pursuing the Mac USB 3.0 market for owners of Macintosh Pro towers with it's PCI slots - and for recent MacBook Pro models with ExpressCard/34 slots built in. Here on its support page are optimized USB3 Drivers for Mac OSX Leopard 10.5 and up.
NOTE! These cards and its driver currently ONLY support LaCie brand USB 3.0 drives! So it is essential to pair these cards with LaCie SuperSpeed drives
from their current product line.For PCI-e Mac Pro Towers:
LaCie USB 3.0 PCI Express Card - Model 130977
For 15"-17" MacBook Pro ExpressCard Slots:
LaCie USB 3.0 ExpressCard/34 - Model 130998
Again - at this time - you MUST pair either of these cards with any number of LaCie's own USB3 external hard drive lineup.
Alternately: you can order a CalDigit USB3 PCI or ExpressCard directly from Caldigit.com - who's driver works explicitly paired with their AV DRIVE.
It should be noted, USB drivers are often - and can be explicitly written - to look for and detect very specific product and vendor ID codes when polling for the presence of a device on the USB bus. This double-edge sword has benefits for the manufacturer: Quality control for full compatibility and testing for the best consumer experience, but also can be used to leverage market-share. If you want a working Mac USB3 solution today - LaCie and CalDigit have the goods that other's don't.
It probably isn't far off when more adaptable and flexible USB 3.0 drivers for Mac OSX Leopard will become available that work with any number of 3rd-party USB 3.0 hard drives or USB 3.0 SSD Drives for the ultimate in SuperSpeed drive performance.
USB 3.0 For Mac - Potential Options For Select Apple Models
10/12/10 18:22 Filed in: Apple USB 3.0
The most important technological advance for personal computers in the year(s) ahead will be USB 3.0 peripherals and accessories. The most immediate value will be from SuperSpeed backup drives. Modern hard drives have been severely bottlenecked by Firewire and USB 2.0 as convenient external drive connections. eSATA has been a help, but as many users know, eSATA (if Apple even decided to include such ports) can be fussy and it's usually easier to just use USB 2.0. USB3 SuperSpeed promises to help us all back up large amounts of data in just minutes -- instead of an hour or more.
Unfortunately, some of these technologies won't be available to most Mac users until Apple builds USB3 ports into new models, releases SuperSpeed drivers for OSX Leopard - or some 3rd-party develops drivers for 3rd-party hardware. One of the disadvantages of Mac‘s architecture being tightly controlled and locked down by one company is fewer choices. The decision Apple makes when deciding which new technologies are important is one thing. Now tied at the hip with Intel for some aspects of logic board design and bridge chips, both Intel and Apple are lagging on USB3 support.
Let’s review at some of the upcoming serial bus technologies, why they matter, and how Mac users – especially buyers of Apple’s latest iMacs – are largely locked out of them due to the lack of desktop expansion options common with PCs. Several new models of PC motherboards with built-in USB 3.0 SuperSpeed ports are already on the market. Combined with Windows 7 which includes drivers for USB3, at least some PC users are enjoying USB3's benefits - today.
USB 3.0 is potentially 10x faster than USB 2.0 which really lifts the bottleneck off of common external storage. This could be a big help for who use Time Machine to back up their Mac frequently.
There is another great benefit to USB 3.0 also – and that is the extra electrical power it supplies to devices, which makes it such a better choice for external storage over all other methods. With USB 3.0, the amount of Milliamps of power available will nearly double from 500mAh to 900mAh.
We'll be able to connect more power-hungry devices such as portable external drives without needing a separate power connector or a USB Y-cable. Handheld devices like an iPod, iPad or iPhone can recharge in half the time. And with the high bandwidth of SuperSpeed USB3 - data sync operations will occur in a fraction of the time.
If your notebook – Mac or otherwise has an ExpressCard port, you will likely be able to add an ExpressCard adapter to enjoy USB 3.0 down the road once OSX USB 3 drivers are available for the ExpressCard slot found in select 15" and 17" MacBook Pro models.
The problem is, there are a lot of very popular MacBooks without an ExpressCard slot out there. (For example a 2009 13" Unibody MacBook) – and iMac users are sadly completely out of luck, as that machine has no PCI Express card expansion option at all. There is hope for Macintosh Pro tower owners who have multiple PCI-e slots available to add a USB 3.0 expansion card. We just need the drivers...
Unfortunately, some of these technologies won't be available to most Mac users until Apple builds USB3 ports into new models, releases SuperSpeed drivers for OSX Leopard - or some 3rd-party develops drivers for 3rd-party hardware. One of the disadvantages of Mac‘s architecture being tightly controlled and locked down by one company is fewer choices. The decision Apple makes when deciding which new technologies are important is one thing. Now tied at the hip with Intel for some aspects of logic board design and bridge chips, both Intel and Apple are lagging on USB3 support.
Let’s review at some of the upcoming serial bus technologies, why they matter, and how Mac users – especially buyers of Apple’s latest iMacs – are largely locked out of them due to the lack of desktop expansion options common with PCs. Several new models of PC motherboards with built-in USB 3.0 SuperSpeed ports are already on the market. Combined with Windows 7 which includes drivers for USB3, at least some PC users are enjoying USB3's benefits - today.
USB 3.0 is potentially 10x faster than USB 2.0 which really lifts the bottleneck off of common external storage. This could be a big help for who use Time Machine to back up their Mac frequently.
There is another great benefit to USB 3.0 also – and that is the extra electrical power it supplies to devices, which makes it such a better choice for external storage over all other methods. With USB 3.0, the amount of Milliamps of power available will nearly double from 500mAh to 900mAh.
We'll be able to connect more power-hungry devices such as portable external drives without needing a separate power connector or a USB Y-cable. Handheld devices like an iPod, iPad or iPhone can recharge in half the time. And with the high bandwidth of SuperSpeed USB3 - data sync operations will occur in a fraction of the time.
If your notebook – Mac or otherwise has an ExpressCard port, you will likely be able to add an ExpressCard adapter to enjoy USB 3.0 down the road once OSX USB 3 drivers are available for the ExpressCard slot found in select 15" and 17" MacBook Pro models.
The problem is, there are a lot of very popular MacBooks without an ExpressCard slot out there. (For example a 2009 13" Unibody MacBook) – and iMac users are sadly completely out of luck, as that machine has no PCI Express card expansion option at all. There is hope for Macintosh Pro tower owners who have multiple PCI-e slots available to add a USB 3.0 expansion card. We just need the drivers...
