Look closely at that picture. See that Type-A USB jack? The single with the blue stripe sandwiched between the round AC jack (with its green light) and VGA and HDMI ports? Yeah, that’s Sony’s Thunderbolt implementation in accordance with a trusted source. a little bit digging reveals that the ” Ultimate Mobile PC ” teased by Sony above is essentially an identical VAIO Hybrid PC leaked by Sony Insider back in March said to feature an external dock with one USB 3.0 jack, HDMI, Ethernet, AMD Whistler discrete graphics, and a Blu-ray Disc writer. And yeah, you guessed it, the dock attaches to the VAIO’s Thunderbolt jack.
What we’re looking to get our heads around, however, is Sony’s choice for a USB connector in place of the Mini DisplayPort utilized by Apple’s dual-channel 10Gbps Thunderbolt implementation. The verdict to move USB was first dropped at our attention by site Gul Digital. We’ve long known that Sony will be a gentle Peak partner in some capacity. And the choice to move USB certainly echoes those first prototype interconnects demonstrated by Intel that combined a hybrid USB 3.0 connector with an optical interface and electrical connection to hold power. We also just like the idea of having the ability to attach a USB 3.0 harddrive without first attaching an adapter. What troubles us, though, is an announcement made by the USB Implementers Forum last summer expressing reservations with Intel’s proposed interconnect:
“USB connectors don’t seem to be general purpose connectors and aren’t designed for use in support of alternative technology applications or standards or as combo connectors.”
Perhaps Sony has worked out a licensing arrangement with the USB-IF? We do not know. But we’re told that Sony’s Thunderbolt implementation is certainly using a USB connector and positively not using Mini DisplayPort. But we’ll wait until this thing ships before complaining about Thunderbolt fragmentation too loudly.
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