Promise Pegasus R6 & Mac Thunderbolt Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi on July 8, 2011 2:01 AM ESTWindows Support
I've got good news and bad news for Windows 7/Boot Camp users. If you're using the Pegasus as a pass through for a 27-inch Cinema Display, your monitor will still work under Windows 7. Unlike what we saw when Apple first introduced the MacBook Pro, there's now a Thunderbolt device listed in Device Manager. As we mentioned in our review of the MacBook Pro, the Thunderbolt device branches off 4 PCIe lanes from the Sandy Bridge CPU itself:
The bad news is that neither Promise nor PMC Sierra have published Windows drivers for the PM8011 SAS/SATA RAID controller - the Pegasus is currently unavailable under Windows.
There's some more bad news. With the Pegasus attached, you lose the ability to put your machine to sleep under Windows. Sleep works totally fine under OS X, just not under Windows with a Thunderbolt device attached. Target display mode isn't supported under Windows either.
There are a couple more quirks that exist under Windows. Apparently you can't use the ExpressCard slot while a Thunderbolt device is connected to your MacBook Pro under Windows. And finally if you have a Thunderbolt device connected and choose to eject it using the taskbar tool, you can't reactivate the device without restarting Windows. This last quirk doesn't really apply yet since there is no Windows driver support for the Pegasus, but these issues do seem a little worrisome for Thunderbolt adoption under Windows. It remains to be seen whether these are Boot Camp issues or broader problems that will impact all Windows implementations of Thunderbolt.
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Spazweasel - Friday, July 8, 2011 - link
$50 too much for a cable? Psshh. Children these days don't remember $75-100 SCSI-3 and UltraSCSI cables. These things are expensive for good reason.You want the highest performance, you pay to play. That's always been the case.
tzhu07 - Friday, July 8, 2011 - link
The phrase, "you get what you pay for" is generally true as a rule of thumb, but in the computer and consumer electronics industry, that has for the most part been untrue.Case in point: The high price of Monster cables having no performance advantage over the same type of cables one can find on newegg at a much lower price.
Apple just has this technology cornered....for now.
tzhu07 - Friday, July 8, 2011 - link
Well, I should say untrue in the computer and consumer electronics cable market.darwinosx - Friday, July 8, 2011 - link
The technology is Intel's not Apples. Intel determines the licensing fees.Samus - Friday, July 8, 2011 - link
Yes, but like SCSI, Apple was its only mainstream delivery vehicle. Back in the 80's and 90's, SCSI interfaces were reserved for servers, ultra high end workstations, and Apple computers. They always push the bleeding edge, which is possibly the only thing I respect about Apple.Justin Case - Saturday, July 9, 2011 - link
This has nothing to do with "pushing the bleeding edge". This has to do with giving Apple an "excuse" to remove USB ports from their iToys, thus locking out 3rd party accessory manufacturers (Thunderbolt is far too expensive to be competitive, unless you have a special deal like Apple has with Intel).The Mac hasn't been Apple's main focus for a long time; it's all about iOS and its ecosystem, now.
haley2011 - Sunday, July 10, 2011 - link
okMySchizoBuddy - Sunday, July 10, 2011 - link
doesn't the article specifically say that thunderbolt is free to license.Isn't Promise Pegasus a 3rd part manufacturer. Do you have any source claiming that Promise has a special deal with Apple.
Sony has thunderbolt ports in it's laptop as well.
Focher - Sunday, July 10, 2011 - link
Besides that you give away your bias of anything from Apple, TB isn't an Apple technology. It's an Intel one. What I find ironic is the USB versus TB arguments. First, it's a false choice. Even Apple has offered both FireWire and USB ports for years on their machines. It's only recently that FireWire has started to be removed from models. There's no current indication that USB will be dropped by Apple. Second, in specific regards to USB 3.0 I don't see the argument versus TB device availability. Neither have much market penetration yet, so only time will tell how each of them will do - and both could do fine or both could fail.MobiusStrip - Tuesday, July 12, 2011 - link
iOS devices are toys, but they already lack USB ports. They don't have any proper developer- or user-accessible I/O, so you think Apple's going to put Thunderbolt ports on them?NO. Apple has created a whole line of mobile devices that are ironically isolated from the world around them.