Thunderbolt tech to feature in Sony Vaio Hybrid PC

Sony are apparently working on a new Vaio PC which will include Intel's Thunderbolt technology and compete directly against the Apple MacBook Air laptop.

According to Sony Insider, the company are working on a notebook that ‘consists of two components' and includes the Intel Thunderbolt technology, previously code named Light Peak that debuted in the new MacBook Pro and Air range of notebooks.

Thunderbolt is based on PCI Express and Displayport and is a new way to connect a PC to peripherals while offering faster data transfer speeds. According to Apple, its '12 times faster than FireWire 800 and up to 20 times faster than USB 2.0′.

Intel released a public statement on February 24th which linked with the MacBook Pro release, saying that users would be able to transfer a full length high definition movie in less than 30 seconds or ‘back up one year of continuous MP3 playback in just over 10 minutes'.

The new Sony ‘two part Vaio' according to Sony Insider includes an Intel Wireless Display, a solid state drive, an Intel Core i7 processor, HDMI output with full support for 3D and weighs only .2 pounds more than the MacBook Air, at 2.5 pounds. Battery life is also claimed to be between 8 to 16 hours.

The ‘second component' is unique to the Vaio and includes a discrete AMD Whistler GPU with 1GB of VRAM, a BluRay drive, HDMI output, VGA output, Ethernet Port and USB port.

“Overall, the notebook looks pleasing to the eyes, aesthetically designed in its VAIO fashion; however, we are not quite sure about the purpose of the second component,” states the site. “It again reminds me of a desktop model Sony marketed back in 2007—VAIO RM series that featured a twin-unit form factor.”

Thunderbolt will be adopted by many more manufacturers over the year, including SLR giant Canon who said “We are excited about Thunderbolt technology and feel it will bring new levels of performance and simplicity to the video creation market.”

KitGuru says: Thunderbolt to replace USB in the future?

Become a Patron!