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I have a fairly high spec workstation in house at the moment, and all this talk about ThunderBolt connections has made me wonder: could it be possible to add a Thunderbolt Port to an existing machine using a PCI-Express board? Since Thunderbolt seems to be just a way of transporting both Video and PCI-Express, i would have though adding a Thunderbolt port to a graphics card would be possible? Is it?

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I may have found the answer while Binging around... Seems that the demo that was shown at the IDF was using a Prototype Mac Pro, using a PCI Express card. (See wikipedia article [here][1]). Also, they mention that the Thunderbolt Controller connects to both a x4 PCI Express slot, and a Display Port Connection... so, in theory, a card could arrive which could have a graphics card and a few ThunderBolt ports, and i would be very happy... weather or not it will happen is another question... [1]:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbolt_(interface) – TiernanO Jan 13 at 11:24
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So, after a bit more digging i found the following line in a post:

  • A developer kit will include an add-in card with Thunderbolt support but isn't really aimed at consumers to integrate into their PC. (update 6 at the bottom of this page)

I did read somewhere, however, that Intel has stated that the connection between Chipset and Thunderbolt chip needs to be direct, and therefore it would not be possible to add to an original machine... but back to the link above, it seems it is possible... AND the demos that where given where run on a Mac Pro with an Addon card... We see what happens soon...

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