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What is Thunderbolt™ technology?
Thunderbolt™ technology is a hardware interface that allows a computer to connect to multiple external devices and peripherals. It provides a better speed and ease of use.
Thunderbolt technology is a solution for the people who are facing problems while processing their work like storage sharing, streaming, video editing, and managing various projects.
Brief history of Thunderbolt:
Thunderbolt technology is originally started in the late 2000s. It is developed by Intel® in collaboration with Apple® as the project called Light Peak. Intel officially introduced Light Peak at the 2009 Intel Developer Forum (IDF), using a prototype Mac Pro logic board to run two 1080p video streams with modified USB ends.
Though Thunderbolt was originally conceived as an optical technology, Intel® switched to electrical connections to reduce costs and to supply up to 10 watts of power to connected devices.
As copper has a good ability to carry power.
In 2009, Intel® officials announced that the company was “working on bundling the optical fiber with copper wire so Light Peak can be used to power devices plugged into the PC”.
Intel® and industry partners are still developing optical Thunderbolt hardware and cables.
Besides Apple® and Intel®, a few companies have signed on with Thunderbolt. There are three storage companies (LaCie, Promise Technology and Western Digital), and four A/V companies (Aja, Apogge, Avid and Blackmagic).|
It was an efficient creation suitable for many purposes as compared to many cables and ports floating those days. In the beginning, this impressive technology was only available for the Macs and tended to be expensive.
It was designed to be a particularly powerful and flexible connection. It was particularly the best gadget for engineers and designers who need to work with high-speed connections, high definition displays and many external peripherals.
Thunderbolt combines PCI Express (PCIe) and DisplayPort (DP) into two serial signals, and additionally provides DC power, all in one cable.
It was originally built for Macs, but it can also be used with PCs.
It has 4 versions by now.
⦁ Thunderbolt 1 (2010)
⦁ Thunderbolt 2 (2013)
⦁ Thunderbolt 3 (2015)
⦁ Thunderbolt 4 (2020)
Bases on these different versions this technology supports different data rates and cable lengths.
Thunderbolt 1:
This new technology (initially named as Light Peak) was then release as Thunderbolt™ in the early 2010s.
Thunderbolt 1 used the same connector shape as Mini DisplayPort but can be identified by a tiny Thunderbolt symbol next to the port. This first-generation Thunderbolt technology offered 10 Gbps data transfer speeds as well as video through the same port (something USB 3.0 ports at the time couldn’t handle). Moreover, there are two channels each supporting 10 Gbps. Hence total 20 Gbps is achievable which is the same speed as of the next version.
Thunderbolt 2:
It didn’t take long for Thunderbolt technology to progress even further with Thunderbolt 2. When USB 3.1 Gen 2 caught up to Thunderbolt 1 in terms of data transfer speed, Thunderbolt 2 was introduced in Apple’s updated 2013 MacBook Pro. Still using the Mini DisplayPort connector, Thunderbolt 2 doubled the previous data transfer speed to 20Gbps and enabled video streaming to a single 4K monitor or dual QHD monitors. Thunderbolt 2 was another big leap forward, but its most powerful version so far required a change from the Mini DisplayPort connector to a new connector shape.
Thunderbolt 2 uses the same connectors as the original Thunderbolt 1, so Thunderbolt 2 devices will be backwards compatible with Thunderbolt peripherals and vice versa. But a Thunderbolt 1 device connected to a Thunderbolt 2 port will perform at the Thunderbolt speed of 10 Gbps.
Thunderbolt 3:
2015 marked the arrival of the game-changing Thunderbolt 3 super-port. Built on the slim, oval USB-C connector shape, Thunderbolt 3 is the compact port that does it all. Transferring record amounts of power, data, video, and audio at the same time.
It offers double the speed of Thunderbolt 2 that is 40 Gbps. Currently, it is the most versatile port available on any device.
Old versions like Thunderbolt 1 and Thunderbolt 2 use the same connector as mini-DisplayPort, whereas the latest version, Thunderbolt 3 re-uses the USB-C connector from USB.
Thunderbolt 3 provides DisplayPort, which can natively connect to all displays with DisplayPort and mini-DisplayPort, and via adapters can connect to all other modern display interfaces, including HDMI, DVI, and VGA.
A device with a Thunderbolt 3 port opens new possibilities for creating a highly productive desk setup.
Thunderbolt 4:
Thunderbolt 4 is an upcoming version of Thunderbolt™ technology. Although, there is not much information about this new technology, but at CES 2020, Intel announced some of its features.
It is disclosed that Thunderbolt 4 would be four times faster than USB 3.2 Gen 2, which has a maximum speed of 10Gbps. So, Thunderbolt 4 should operate at a maximum speed of 40Gbps. And, this is not going to make it faster than Thunderbolt 3.
It stated that Thunderbolt 4 will first be supported by upcoming Tiger Lake mobile processors, slated to debut at some point in 2020. Tiger Lake is also characterized as a “10nm+” chip.
Thunderbolt™ technology helps you to work with many external devices offering top speed, ease of use and many more features.
Although it is quite expensive as compared to USB technology but if your prime goal is to achieve speed and quality work while processing your projects then it is worth it.
While Thunderbolt 3 is reaching maturity now, Thunderbolt 4 can have enormous future potential.
