Intel Thunderbolt is 10 years old

Sandra Loyd

Intel developed a data transfer standard in early 2010 that also offers increased data rate / bandwidth and a simplified interface for a variety of peripherals and wired data communications. The fiber-optic signaling technology, codenamed Light Peak, seemed promising, but Intel was later forced to change what seemed to be a proven recipe.

This year’s 10-year-old predecessor, Thunderbolt, was initially limited to streaming. and although the benefits of the technology were demonstrated at the 2010 Intel Developer Forum when it was integrated into laptops in the pilot phase, it eventually took a different direction in preparing the development for the market launch.

Intel would have liked to see the Light Peak would be able, and initially copper fibers were wired in addition to the glass fibers, allowing for the transmission of up to 10 W of power. In addition, copper cabling has proven so successful in development that the standard has virtually halved. For some industries, fiber optic technology has been further developed and e.g. thus providing a connection of up to 100 meters in length, while in other cases the copper-based solution offered the best parameters.

Today’s desktop and laptop users can meet the latter and enjoy the relatively large, up to 40 Gb / s of theoretical bandwidth and a surprisingly wide range of uses. With the currently available Thunderbolt 3 and 4, you can easily connect displays, external storage, additional video cards, and network devices to your computer, and if the external unit has the right power supply, it can even charge your notebook.

Accession seeing the format, it can be assumed that the standard is close to USB technology, as it has been using the Type-C interface uniformly since TB 3. Thunderbolt, previously available only to a very narrow user base, has been introduced in a number of new device categories, and Intel itself has simplified the hardware and software features of the standard. While previously a separate control board, corresponding motherboard wiring and royalty payment made life difficult for partner manufacturers, it has now become a more cost-effective and attractive alternative due to the built-in TB function in the processor and the waiving of the royalty.

10th birthday Intel will be developing the next-generation Thunderbolt with steam power, which will already drive 8K and 16K displays and service external SSDs capable of slow 10GB / s data transfer.

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