Thunderbolt: Apple and Intel's new interconnect

According to the Intel press conference today, no. There are no current plans for a PCIe card supporting Thunderbolt -- but that could change.

"The company also said there are no plans for a PCIe adapter card for Thunderbolt; the only way to get it will be with a new computer/motherboard"

This statement has to be false. It doesn't make any sense. If Thunderbolt supports PCIe, then why would you need a new motherboard or a new computer. Simply pop in a new graphics card or add on card that supports the standard. Maybe Intel doesn't plan to release an add on card of their own, but who's to stop another company from doing so? I read the Cnet presentation and Dong Ngo is a liar and an idiot. Go to Wikipedia and look up Light Peak. Intel designed a prototype PCI Express card for desktop PCs, enabling many people to use the new technology without a motherboard upgrade. The card has two optical buses that power four ports. On some machines, such a card would not be able to achieve the full 40Gbit/s bandwidth of four Light Peak ports, as that bit rate would require a 16× PCIe slot (1× PCIe is 4Gbit/s) for optimal performance, and some motherboards only have one 16× slot (mine has two, sorry for bragging), usually occupied by a video card. On the protocol side, Thunderbolt essentially extends the existing PCI Express bus protocols into a new serial data form that allows it to be extended over cabling to attach computers and peripherals. From a configuration standpoint, a thunderbolt cable contains a pair of optical fibers that are used for upstream and downstream traffic. This means that Thunderbolt offers a maximum of 10 Gbit/s in each direction at the same time. The prototype system, code named "Light Peak" at the time, featured two motherboard controllers that both supported two bidirectional buses at the same time, wired to four external connectors. Each pair of optical cables from the controllers is led to a connector, where power is added through separate wiring. The physical connector used on the prototype system is similar to the existing USB or FireWire connectors. One key piece of the device chain that has not been shown is a controller for the device-end of the bus. In the USB case, a single controller can contain the power circuitry, USB device logic, along with off-the-shelf, custom or programmable logic for running devices. A simple USB device can be built by adding a connector, one driver chip, and the hardware the system is meant to drive; a mouse is a good example of a system that is typically implemented using a single off-the-shelf chip. This is the same technology that's trying to compete with USB, Firewire, eSata, and Ethernet in hopes to replace them and their going to limit it's accessibility to consumers on both the Mac and PC end? That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. USB 3.0 is available without needing a new board and it only provides half the speed of Thunderbolt. All that's needed is the controller on both ends to on 1 graphics card with two to four mini display ports, which, I'm sure, ATI/AMD isn't shy at being the first to implement it in their 2011 workstation cards. FirePro V9900 anyone?

buy me one of these mbp's and i'll buy us both an adapter.

Yes, you're a troll. I'll still bite. Apple hasn't removed any of the existing ports (yet). Assuming the technology takes off - still a big "if" - then you'll be able to get adapters from anyone you please, including Apple.

If this does take off though, we'll have future super-thin laptops that only need a tiny port or two to handle all of today's connectivity, and with better performance and simpler cabling to boot.