First there was USB2, then USB3. Now, Thunderbolt. Truth be told it’s been around for awhile, but only in Macs. So now, it’s really second generation “Thunderbolt”, which started as “Light Peak”.
Thunderbolt gen one was demo’d at CES2012 by Apple, and it’s speed is impressive. At (up to) 10Gbps (ten gigs per second) of data throughput it’s a force to be reckoned with, and many folks, especially multimedia folks are dying to get with it already. It combines data, video, audio, and power in a single connection. Not only that, but it’s bi-directional. It can transmit and receive data at the same time. Real world? Probably around 8 Gbps should be expected.
“It allows for high-speed connection of peripherals such as hard drives, RAID arrays, video-capture solutions, and network interfaces, and it can transmit high-definition video using the DisplayPort protocol. Each Thunderbolt port also provides up to 10 Watts of power to connected peripherals.
One thing to note, however, is that although Thunderbolt is designed to allow the use of either electrical or optical connections, Apple's current implementation uses only electrical circuitry, which allows the port to carry power, as well. (Intel expects most vendors to use electrical connections both for this advantage and because of the lower cost. Optical versions will likely be used only when cables longer than three meters are needed.)” -http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/220639/what_you_need_to_know_about_thunderbolt.html?tk=rel_news
Now that Intel is coming out with the “Cactus Ridge” chip, it will ship along with it’s “Ivy Bridge” CPU and that means that in just a couple or three weeks, computers with USB3 and Thunderbolt should become available for Windows computers for the first time on the market.
Intel has to do this really quickly before USB3 becomes the only “industry standard” so I’m not expecting a big price jump for this new technology. It’s really just Windows catching up to iOS chips.
This is a big deal because Thunderbolt is many times faster than USB3 and FireWire 800. It’ll mean a great deal to folks using a central server to power different media devices in different areas at the same time as well, as well as to folks needing to transmit big chunks of data quickly.
So, that’s the news for today.
Sources:
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/220639/what_you_need_to_know_about_thunderbolt.html?tk=rel_news
http://newsroom.intel.com/community/intel_newsroom/blog/2011/02/24/thunderbolt-technology-the-fastest-data-connection-to-your-pc-just-arrived
http://www.extremetech.com/computing/125953-thunderbolt-for-pcs-a-reality-as-ivy-bridge-launch-nears