Thunderbolt is Intel’s latest interconnect technology that promises the next generation in transfer speeds, 10 Gbps. Thunderbolt-equipped motherboards or devices will have an Intel Thunderbolt controller chip that provides compatbility with a host of other connection technologies such as: VGA, DVI, HDMI, Gigabit Ethernet, FireWire and eSATA.
Apart from its speed, Thunderbolt‘s other two (2) standout features are that it’s dual channel and that you can daisy-chain up to 7 devices. The dual-channel feature means you can have 10 Gbps push and 10 Gbps pull simultaneously or have 10 Gbps to your primary device and the other 10 Gbps channel for the other downstream daisy-chainned devices.
In what may have been unheard of 5 years ago, Intel is rolling out this new technology and having it implemented first on Apple hardware, specifically their latest MacBook Pros. Other devices, mainly storage and AV, will start showing up this year, otherwise don’t hold your breath for a Thunderbolt-capable computer.