There are rumours aplenty at the moment about Final Cut Pro 8 or will it be Studio 4:
The chances of a new interface – while good for future productivity, will also mean that users will need to re-learn the UI. We will be offering training for those that want to get up to speed quickly.
“One source described the new release as encompassing everything from low level architectural changes to a complete redesign of the user interface” 64 bit seems the logical thing to happen – likely to bring Final Cut up to speed with Premiere
Key Commands, for current features, should be the same but new things in unfamiliar places will bring some tears to those wanting to get to work immediately. A new interface brings up the possibilities of a change in the time line to be more like “motion” and if that is the case then maybe the “Motion” features will be integrated into the Final Cut application.
Combine this with ThunderBolt connectivity, powerful laptops and for sure, more powerful towers on the way) along with the rising popularity of DSLRs and 2011 will be a vintage year for us Final Cut users.
WHAT IS THUNDERBOLT?
Thunderbolt is a very, VERY fast I/O (input/output) communications protocol (10 Gbps or 1.25 GB/second) that supports both hard drives and monitors. This is faster than anything else on the market.
Apple’s Thunderbolt white paper states:
For time sensitive data, such as video and audio during creation and playback, data transfer can be critical to the success of the work. Thunderbolt technology was specifically designed with video and audio applications in mind with inherently low latency and highly accurate time synchronization capabilities.
Currently, Thunderbolt is supported only on MacBook Pros. However, I have every expectation that this connection protocol will be added to all future Mac systems. (I don’t see it being added to IOS devices simply because they don’t hold enough data to require these kinds of transfer speeds. Well, at least not yet.)
Today, Thunderbolt connects two devices using copper wires, but the protocol has already been developed to support optical fiber as well, which provides longer cable runs and faster speeds; though without the on-board 10 watts of power.
The great news is that, unlike FireWire and USB, the protocol does not slow down when you have multiple devices attached to it.
Additional features include:
* Dual-channel, each 10 Gbps
* Bi-directional, equally fast in both directions
* Dual protocol, PCI Express for hard disks and DisplayPort for monitors
* Daisy-chain-able, supports up to six devices per channel
* Woks with both copper and fiber cabling, fiber allows longer cable runs
* Low latency, very, VERY short delays in transferring signals
* Delivers up to 10 watts of power over copper wiring, but not fiber, to support bus-powered devices. (Though this is not enough for most hard disks)
HOW FAST IS IT?
* 10 gigaBITS per second (10 Gbps)
* 1.25 gigaBYTES per second (1.25 GB/s)
* More than twelve times faster than FireWire 800
* More than twenty times faster than USB 2
* Faster than USB 3, mini-SAS, FibreChannel, and all flavors of SCSI.
WHAT SUPPORTS THUNDERBOLT NOW?
Apple’s three latest MacBook Pros. But of course future Pro orientated Macs will support it – for the meantime Thunderbolt is exclusive to Apple.
WHAT WILL SUPPORT THUNDERBOLT IN THE FUTURE?
One hardware vendor wrote:
Thunderbolt is THE hot topic of discussion everywhere. What happened is that when it was being developed, Apple went to Blackmagic Design, AJA, Promise, Western Digital, LaCie & even CalDigit to see if they’d be interested in being 1st onboard the tech, so it’ll be interesting to see what AJA, BMD & the rest will come out with. We already know Promise has a 4 bay and a 6 bay TB product line called “Pegasus” which doesn’t ship till April and LaCie has a new TB 2 bay, that I know of.
I don’t think it’ll kill FireWire anytime soon & our mini-SAS 8 bay product is still selling very solidly and will continue to do so at nearly 1000 MB/s with the ATTO R680 card.
CAN THUNDERBOLT BE RETROFIT ON EXISTING COMPUTERS OR STORAGE?
No.
WHAT DOES THUNDERBOLT MEAN FOR THE FUTURE?
Thunderbolt is designed to meet the needs of the Pro market. No consumer needs speeds this fast – they can use it, but they don’t NEED it. Pros do.