Thunderbolt to Firewire adapter - does it exist yet?

Hello

The BELKIN (pre)-product looks fine because it would allow to connect a secondary display an a FW disk simultaneously.

Today, i can connect my FW disks to my MacBookAir using a Sonnet device (http://www.sonnettech.com/product/echoexpresscard34thunderbolt.html) equipped with a 2 FW ports Express Card. It is still expensive (device 140 euros + card 90 euros) and i can't connect display and FW disk in the same time, but i could'nt wait for the future converters .

In last months, i have found Sonnet annoucements dated Feb 2011 for specific Thunderbolt-FW converters(named allegro ), but it seems they have never been manufactured (you still can find artistic pictures on the web) and Sonnet Allegro products are today PCI Cards.

I read that CES revealed many Thunderbolt developments ..

Henri

I couldn't agree more. Thunderbolt has been out for more than a year and there is still almost nothing available.

Owning a Macbook Air is like living on an island unless you think the way outdated USB connection is satisfactory.

The iClarified device looks great, although very pricey. But Sept 2012 release date?????

Yup, same boat here. Been using USB for my external backup drive that's sitting in a nice case with FW800 and USB (and eSATA, which I can't use, either). As mad as I get when I think about it, that Apple Thunderbolt display is looking better all the time (and I recently got a very nice Samsung E2290 to go with my 11" Air - go figure).

Thunderbolt stuff will probably eventually be worth the wait, but with USB 3.0 buzzing up its rear end, it may miss the optimum window and lose a lot of share it might've grabbed. Definitely not like apple to lag like this. And Intel may get tired enough of the Apple-exclusive deal that they just pull the plug like they did on IA-64 with HP.

I do love my Air for most everything else, though.

This from Sonnet Technologies:

The Allegro FW800 Thunderbolt Adapter's introduction has been pushed back to the second half of the year. There's no technical reason we couldn't deliver a product sooner, but rather an economic one. The currently available Thunderbolt chipsets are fairly expensive, and would have pushed up the cost of the product to levels unacceptable to most. We are instead designing this product (and others) around second generation chipsets, which will be less expensive and smaller (that will help keep the size small), but won't be available until 2nd to 3rd quarter. The final pricing hasn't yet been determined, but it will certainly cost a lot less than the rumored pricing for the Belkin device.

I think that may explain why there are so few Thunderbolt devices around now, and that we can expect some from summer onwards.

MST