Thunderbolt support confirmed?

[Jas00555]

So in the Surface AMA, someone asked about thunderbolt support so he could replace his desktop too and the Surface team replied

"when you get your Surface Pro 3, do me a favor and look at the 'power connector'"

What do you think this means?

 

[norir82]

I'm not sure what to make of this comment. On the one hand it does sound like a sneaky way to infer that the Surface Pro 3 has a thunderbolt connect but then I wonder why didn't they just go ahead and say so from the get go. Since the new Docking Station has only been mentioned and not detailed it is possible that when they open up the Dock for order that they'll make an announcement of its capabilities. Specifically, that the new Dock is a Thunderbolt support & designed device.

I certainly hope this is the case, Thunderbolt just makes so much sense for the Surface Pro line.

 

[df608]

So does this mean the power connector is thunder bolt?

 

[Jas00555]

I have no idea. It doesn't look like it. Maybe some accessory?

 

[rurutia]

I think it was poor phrasing on their part. They just meant it was a data port so it would give him the same functionality as Thunderbolt.

 

[xboxonthego3]

I think he might of meant you can just plug the power cord in and then do display port out or just get the dock. Desktop replacement. I would be surprised about thunderbolt.

Edit. Oh wait there is a USB on the surface power connector! Boom.

 

[RajeevT]

I think it was poor phrasing on their part. They just meant it was a data port so it would give him the same functionality as Thunderbolt.

I think you are right, and it certainly was a very odd answer.

 

[im.thatoneguy]

Remember how they teased us about the power pins on the Surface Pro 1. Aka the power keyboard? And then it came out 2 years after the tease? I imagine it's something like that. Technically it might have Thunderbolt--just like technically the Surface Pro 1 was going to get a power keyboard, but don't hold your breath for that theoretical capability to come before it's obsolete.

 

[Guzzler3]

I can't find it now, but if you look a the new docking station, the dock connector is the power port. So it's power and DATA at the same time. It just might be a Thunderbolt connecter disguised as power plug :wink:

 

[The_New_Normal]

I can't find it now, but if you look a the new docking station, the dock connector is the power port. So it's power and DATA at the same time. It just might be a Thunderbolt connecter disguised as power plug :wink:

Microsoft News | New Surface Pro Accessories: Surface Pro 3 Docking Station And Ethernet Adapter
"
Power supply input, 3 USB 3.0 ports, 2 USB 2.0 ports, Gigabit Ethernet port, 3.5mm audio input/output, Mini DisplayPort video output, Security lock slot
"

Hopefully they sell it to the world this time, rather than only in USA

 

[Akash Patel]

Microsoft News | New Surface Pro Accessories: Surface Pro 3 Docking Station And Ethernet Adapter
"
Power supply input, 3 USB 3.0 ports, 2 USB 2.0 ports, Gigabit Ethernet port, 3.5mm audio input/output, Mini DisplayPort video output, Security lock slot
"

Hopefully they sell it to the world this time, rather than only in USA

Mini display pory cant be used as a thunderbolt port.
Even if they use same geometry design mini display port cannot be used as thunderbolt port.
Whereas a thunderbolt port can be used as mini display port.

 

[The_New_Normal]

Mini display pory cant be used as a thunderbolt port.
Even if they use same geometry design mini display port cannot be used as thunderbolt port.
Whereas a thunderbolt port can be used as mini display port.

Well yes.
The point of my link is that the power connector has a lot of throughput, much like a thunderbolt port.

 

[LCGrzy]

Maybe a dumb question, but why would you want a Thunderbolt port anyways? Is it just speed? It would seem to me that USB 3.0 is far more widely adopted, thus greatly increasing its utility over T-Bolt. To me, T-Bolt is as worthless as FireWire. Speed advantages, yes; but availability severely hampers it.

 

[Karthik Naik]

thunderbolt is a bit pointless for now really
its expensive,hasnt got much support or become the absolute norm yet
plus external hdd transfer speeds havent crossed usb 3.0 yet its false marketing when they say such high speeds
though its still nice to have it as an option for those who buy devices to last years etc
we used to buy thunderbolt and firewire hdds at my studios but speeds werent that great so we went back to usb 3.0 coz of more compatibility etc(we use mac pros whereas clients etc usually use regular netbooks etc)

 

[fc000]

Maybe a dumb question, but why would you want a Thunderbolt port anyways? Is it just speed? It would seem to me that USB 3.0 is far more widely adopted, thus greatly increasing its utility over T-Bolt. To me, T-Bolt is as worthless as FireWire. Speed advantages, yes; but availability severely hampers it.

External GPU.

​You could have a dock for the Surface Pro 3 that includes a PCIE slot or included video card. In other words, you're SP3 would get a massive graphics boost when you plug in a GPU via thunderbolt, and now you can game with something significantly more powerful than an intel integrated chip.

 

[jpal12]

I think it means they will have a external GPU dock.

 

[Karthik Naik]

External GPU.

​You could have a dock for the Surface Pro 3 that includes a PCIE slot or included video card. In other words, you're SP3 would get a massive graphics boost when you plug in a GPU via thunderbolt, and now you can game with something significantly more powerful than an intel integrated chip.

though its very expensive, $300 for the dock itself and more $ for the gpu

 

[Jas00555]

On Windows Weekly, Paul Thurrott was saying that there are some extra pins inside that may be able to be used with some accessory (that's not the dock) to get Thunderbolt OR Microsoft might have some proprietary thing that they think is better than Thunderbolt. It would be interesting if they could create a new standard among high end PCs.

Whatever it is, it probably wont be available at launch. It'll probably be something for the Surface Pro 4.

 

[LCGrzy]

That would certainly be interesting, but the odds of MS, or anyone for that matter, making one are extremely small; as would be the market for it.

 

[astondg]

Maybe a dumb question, but why would you want a Thunderbolt port anyways? Is it just speed?

For me it's the convenience of being able to 'dock' with 1 cable (in the SP3 case or 2 cables if you need separate power) and have 1 or more monitors, Gigabit Ethernet, USB accessories and the possibility of an external GPU or SSD all running from that 1 cable. USB 3.0 can do all of those things too but it's bandwidth is lower which means any video being sent over it will need to be compressed and a GPU would be restricted. USB 3.0 can go faster in the future, but so can T/Bolt (it was originally designed to use a faster optical connection).

I've always envied the way Apple does it with the MacBooks, yes there's some pain with the cost and backwards compatibility (particularly with the T/Bolt displays not being backwards compatible) but I think it's worth it.