Implementing And Comparing Video Over USB: The Thunderbolt Back Story

Hopefully by now at least some of you have gotten a chance to peruse Cypress Semiconductor’s contributed feature story in the latest issue of EDN, which went live yesterday. I’ve been working with Cypress on it since early February, and as you’ll see when you read through it, the main article compares USB v3 against HDMI and DisplayPort as video connection candidates. Personally, I think it under-estimates the effect of HDMI’s formidable installed base and momentum both in televisions and in consumer electronics devices such as digital video cameras, cellphones and PDAs…but all in all, I think Cypress did a decent balanced-coverage job with the piece, especially given that the company had an inherent vested interest in pushing one of the options (USB v3).

Within the Cypress writeup, you’ll notice a sidebar titled ‘Intel Thunderbolt I/O technology’. It’s the topic of this particular blog post, because until very late in the May 12 EDN edition’s production cycle, it didn’t even exist. Back in early February, when I approved the initial abstract submission from Cypress, I said:

Looks good, go ahead. Just make it a fair comparison; discuss the added overhead and latency of USB3 versus either DisplayPort or HDMI, along with the bandwidth limitations, as they impact the implementation (resolution limits, the need for lossy compression, etc).

And although I no longer have access to the specific email from which I can quote, I remember shortly afterward also sending a message to the article coordinator suggesting that the authors also discuss USB3 versus Intel’s Light Peak technology, which had not yet been renamed Thunderbolt and released (in copper, not yet optical, form) by Apple.

The article first draft arrived in late March…minus any mention of Light Peak/Thunderbolt. Here’s my response:

The omission of Thunderbolt as a competitive alternative to USB3 is notable, and will I think reduce the credibility of the piece in readers’ eyes. How about a short sidebar?

Cypress replied:

I’ll get the authors on it.

And I responded:

Thanks. Wish this would have been there from the get-go; I think I communicated an expectation of mention of Thunderbolt mention in several consecutive feedback emails stretching back weeks…

But as of early April, the requested sidebar still hadn’t arrived. Here’s the status update we received:

Regarding the sidebar, I am asking the authors to forward it to you directly. Internally, there have been some issues about this sidebar. The two key points are:

1. This is a proprietary/competitive technology so Cypress is still determining whether it is appropriate for them to discuss it and
2. This is little information available to other companies beyond press releases, meaning there’s not much that Cypress can say. Just a heads up.

And here’s how I responded:

Thunderbolt technology is already shipping in latest-generation Apple MacBook Pros and is expected to shortly spread more broadly across Apple’s product line, as well as to other computer OEMs’ products. And high-level Thunderbolt details sufficient for coverage in the article are widely known;I discuss then, for example, in the blog post I earlier forwarded you the link for.

Ultimately it’s up to Cypress whether or not they want to discuss Thunderbolt as a competitive approach to USB3, as Cypress has already done in competitively positioning USB3 versus HDMI and DisplayPort in the main article. However, I continue to feel strongly that Cypress’s credibility in this article will tangibly suffer if the authors editorially ignore the Thunderbolt ‘elephant in the room’.

Finally, as you already know, we received the versus-Thunderbolt sidebar text in mid-April, which we published as-is.

Here’s my question; was I too hard on Cypress, or not? It’s true that at the moment, Thunderbolt implementations remain Intel-only (in silicon form) and Apple-only (in systems form). However, my earlier ’spread more broadly across Apple’s product line’ prediction was correct, since last week’s new iMacs now contain Thunderbolt I/O ports. Rumors of pending Thunderbolt upgrades to Apple’s Mac Pro, MacBook Air and other systems are gaining speed and looking ever more credible all the time. And I suspect it’s also only a matter of time until we see Thunderbolt connectivity in iPads, iPhones, iPods and other Apple-branded peripherals, too.

Judging from activity at the recent NAB show, Thunderbolt’s embrace by third-party external storage suppliers, A/V adapter vendors, etc is picking up momentum, as well. All of which suggests to me that other computer systems suppliers will inevitably pick up the Thunderbolt baton, too. Why Thunderbolt hasn’t expanded beyond Apple yet may only have to do with a timed exclusivity contract that Apple signed with Intel, for example (I’m only postulating here, with no hard data).

As such, I don’t feel at all badly about how hard I pushed Cypress to not “ignore the Thunderbolt ‘elephant in the room’.” However, those of you who are more upbeat about USB v3’s competitive chances might disagree. So I welcome your comments; please provide not only your opinions but also as much supportive dialogue as you can muster. And I also wish you all a happy weekend!