Intel on Wednesday announced more details on the Thunderbolt 4, the next-gen external connector that will make its’ debut with Tiger Lake CPU’s later this year. It is fully compatible with its predecessor Thunderbolt 3 and uses a USB Type-C connector. Intel first mentioned about the interface in January at CES 2020 in Las Vegas without mentioning any detailed information.
With this new addition, Intel is aiming for expansion in offering universal cable connectivity solution that is designed with the Thunderbolt 3 hardware interface(2015). Thunderbolt 4, can be used for data transfer as well as power delivery over a single connection. It is also compliant with the specifications of USB 4, DisplayPort, and PCI Express (PCIe).
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What is Thunderbolt?
Thunderbolt is the name of the high-speed protocol that dynamically switches to adjust data and video bandwidth depending on the device that you’ve plugged in. Intel first released it in 2009. Since then, Apple was the first one to exclusively use Thunderbolt in MacBook Pro in 2011. Not many PC vendors took this new interface because it requires them to get certification from Intel.
After 3 major releases in the interface, Intel is releasing Thunderbolt 4.
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More on the features
It is not faster at transferring data than Thunderbolt 3 which is capable of data transfer speeds of 40Gbit/s but offers additional features. These include support for two 4K displays or one 8K display. It also has fast storage speeds of 3000 megabytes per second. Users also get up to four ports – one connecting up to the computer and three more ports that will downstream when you connect other devices.
In addition, Thunderbolt 4 will also support universal 40GB/s cables up to 2 meters in length.
Intel aims that the first computers and accessories with Thunderbolt 4 ports will debut later this year. Lenovo as already confirmed that it will be one of the early adopters of the new interface.
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