A theoretical USB/LP standard could just as well have been named 'USB 4.0' or whatever. Then there's HDMI, which is pretty much ubiquitous in the consumer electronics world, seeing rapid adoption for computer displays and is also used in modern projectors.Īnyway, that's pretty much an aside - the real gist of it is what I already mentioned regarding USB/LP being the vastly superior choice.Īs for USB connectors only being allowed to be USB connector, that's not a physical limitation - it's a matter of licensing and what they choose to name the standard.
#PC TARGET DISK MODE PROFESSIONAL#
A few other high-end professional displays ship with full-sized DP but you can't argue it's got any significant market penetration. Unfortunately that's not the main issue, which is the distinct lack of /displays/ using the standard.ĭisplays shipping with mini-DP - Apple Cinema displays. The differences between DP 1.2 and HDMI 1.4a are at best a trade-off, with the latter being the better choice for consumers - even disregarding the huge difference in market penetration.Ĭomputers currently shipping with mini-DP - Apple Macs and those equipped with discrete AMD 5- and 6-series graphics cards. Exodite - Friday, Jlink Mini-DP isn't vastly superior to any other display interface.If we could get line speed transfers, being able to move data between two modern Macs at multiple Gbps would be great. In its current implementation, it's faster than a WiFi transfer but a bit slower than a good Gigabit Ethernet network transfer. The functionality is great, however I believe target disk mode would be a killer feature of Thunderbolt if it could operate at peak performance. On average I'd say I saw transfers around 40MB/s. Sometimes I'd see transfer rates drop all the way down to 9MB/s before jumping up to 30MB/s and then 60MB/s.
#PC TARGET DISK MODE PRO#
Regardless of whether I put the 15-inch MacBook Pro or 27-inch iMac in target disk mode, I never saw more than 61MB/s from the target. As a result, peak performance is no where near what Thunderbolt is capable of.
#PC TARGET DISK MODE DRIVERS#
You even have to eject them all manually before turning off the target Mac.ĭon't get too excited though, since the target Mac isn't running full blown OS X it only implements basic storage drivers and optimizations. MacBook Pro accessing the iMac's sole HDD over Thunderbolt in Target Disk Mode The drives appear like normal removable disks on the host Mac:
![pc target disk mode pc target disk mode](https://static1.makeuseofimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/target_disk-670x343.jpg)
In this mode the target Mac boots into a special EFI state that allows all of its drives (HDDs, SSDs, optical, anything connected to the computer) to be mounted by the host Mac. With only Thunderbolt connected, the FireWire logo disappears - you're now in Target Disk Mode over TB
![pc target disk mode pc target disk mode](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Cv3h4F92sEY/maxresdefault.jpg)
Hold down T and you'll get both Thunderbolt and FireWire logos at boot Connect any two 2011 iMacs, 2011 MacBook Pros or any combination of the two with a Thunderbolt cable, reboot one of them while holding down the T key and you'll boot into target disk mode. Another use of Thunderbolt is Target Disk Mode.