Intel’s ThunderBolt Strikes Apple

Author: Sam Rosen, Principal Analyst, Consumer Research

Published: 28 Feb 2011

Apple launched its new MacBook Pro line with the new ThunderBolt I/O technology while technical details of Intel’s Light Peak technology were being introduced at ISSCC. For anyone who missed the storm, ThunderBolt cables bring DisplayPort video and PCI Express I/O traffic onto a common cable supporting 10 Gbps, and supporting up to 6 daisy-chained devices. In addition to support from Apple’s new MacBook Pro line, external hard drive manufacturers (LaCie, Promise, and Western Digital), and professional video equipment manufacturers (AJA, Apogee, Avid, and Blackmagic) are all on board. While they serve some different markets, the battles to watch will be: HDMI vs. DVI vs. DisplayPort vs. ThunderBolt and USB 3.0 vs. ThunderBolt vs. Firewire. USB 2.0 supports 480 Mbps, USB 3.0 supports 5.0 Gbps and Firewire is typically 800 Mbps full-duplex; HDMI 1.4 supports 10 Gbps (and includes an Ethernet channel) - although it offers only 8 Gbps for video after protocol overhead.

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