Thunderbolt 3 – The Thunderbolt that we Have Been Waiting for!
Intel’s Thunderbolt 3 is getting a huge update this year. Thunderbolt’s blazing speed will see an incredible boost, daisy chaining through one port becomes more convenient, powered devices get more… power, and it’s all wrapped up in a convenient new USB-C package.
The Specs
The new Thunderbolt 3 allows for transfer speeds up 40Gbps. This is double the previous generations already speedy 20Gbps. This sort of speed would allow one to transfer an entire 1080p BluRay in 1 second. The higher bandwidth also allows one to run dual 4k monitors. This is for those of you whom one ultra high resolution display is simply not enough to keep up with your insatiable productivity. Dual 4k enthusiasts fret no more!
Another major convenience Thunderbolt 3 offers is simultaneous data transfer and charging. Thunderbolt 3 supports 100w charging input (for the device’s internal battery) and 15w output for external devices that require power, such as an external storage drive or an external graphics card. Yes I said external GPU via thunderbolt 3. The unicorn only achieved previously by home brewers gets official support from intel.
With a Thunderbolt graphics card chassis, you can get desktop level graphics performance for your laptop using Thunderbolt 3. If you’re on the go, you can add mobile graphics thanks to Thunderbolt 3’s powered output and simultaneous high speed data. Gaming is about to get a whole lot better for Mac users.
USB-C
Possibly the most brilliant part of it all, is the fact that Thunderbolt 3’s connector is now the same as USB-C. This means that the same Thunderbolt 3 port supports both Thunderbolt and USB-C peripherals. Conversely, if you have a thunderbolt peripheral, but only a USB-C port, it will still work. Just not at Thunderbolt speeds.
Between Thunderbolt 3 and the upcoming Skylake processors, Intel and Apple are going to have some very compelling products this next refresh.
-Daniel
–Shatter Buggy, Denver