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Intel to Speed Thunderbolt Deployment With Developer Kits Set for Release This Quarter

Wednesday April 13, 2011 6:21 am PDT by Eric Slivka

IDG News reports that Intel has announced that it will release developer kits for Thunderbolt, its new high-speed data connection standard, sometime this quarter, accelerating deployment of the standard that so far has been limited to Apple's new MacBook Pro and a small handful of peripherals companies.

Intel is already working with some partners to develop products as it tries to build out an ecosystem around the interconnect. LaCie and Western Digital have already demonstrated portable storage products, but are not yet selling devices. Companies including Canon have announced support for Thunderbolt, and products from AJA, BlackMagic, Matrox and Sonnet are being shown at the NAB trade show, which is going on in Las Vegas through April 14.

According to the report, Sony is also firmly behind the standard but has yet to announce plans for bringing it to its products. Other computer manufacturers such as HP are continuing to evaluate Thunderbolt before committing to it.

High-speed data transfer protocols such as Thunderbolt are of course key for moving large files quickly, meaning that the standard will likely play an integral role as power users gear up with the latest hardware and look to deploy such cutting edge software as Apple's forthcoming Final Cut Pro X.
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finalcut
15 months ago
I'd like to see Nikon to build that port in the upcoming D700 replacement (read D800)!

At these speed rate, card reader would be useless to save battery energy! I mean, the transfer would be so fast!
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chinesechikn
15 months ago
Will thunderbolt be the new connection for iOS devices... iPhone 5?
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smiddlehurst
15 months ago
Gotta say I think Thunderbolt (and beyond that Lightpeak) has a real shot at becoming the next de facto standard for computer connectivity. It's got some big names behind it, USB 3.0 isn't really established yet (and isn't as fast or convenient) and some of the concepts at play here are very interesting. Certainly hope that the next Mac Mini refresh includes it as an external hard drive acting as a boot / system disk would make that a very attractive setup.
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Tsurisuto
15 months ago
I'm waiting for NVIDIA and AMD (ATI) to release some external graphic cards utilising ThunderBolt.
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aiqw9182
15 months ago
A few years down the road I can see Thunderbolt being huge. The problem with FireWire was that while it was the faster option it wasn't interchangeable with USB. Now that we have a faster option that is able to use USB 1-3 devices via an adapter it's a win-win situation.
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Consultant
15 months ago
Sony might just cripple it by removing power, similar to what Sony does for firewire on its laptops.
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iketeru
15 months ago
maybe people might think a bit more before saying things like "OMG no USB3, dealbreaker" when they don't even own any devices which implement it yet. Apple have their own plans to leap ahead usually.
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Ihatefall
15 months ago

Gotta say I think Thunderbolt (and beyond that Lightpeak) has a real shot at becoming the next de facto standard for computer connectivity. It's got some big names behind it, USB 3.0 isn't really established yet (and isn't as fast or convenient) and some of the concepts at play here are very interesting. Certainly hope that the next Mac Mini refresh includes it as an external hard drive acting as a boot / system disk would make that a very attractive setup.


USB 3.0 isn't really established yet?!?
Except that it's backwards compatible with the last ten years of USB ports. It hit the market first and I already had a USB 2/3.0 external harddrive when they announce Thunderbolt. This isn't a VHS vs Beta, thunderbolt is basically the renamed version of the very unsupported FireWire. Don't get me wrong, I would LOVE for this to take off as I am always transfer huge files.... But it's not to beat USB3 sorry.
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aiqw9182
15 months ago





USB 3.0 isn't really established yet?!?
Except that it's backwards compatible with the last ten years of USB ports. It hit the market first and I already had a USB 2/3.0 external harddrive when they announce Thunderbolt. This isn't a VHS vs Beta, thunderbolt is basically the renamed version of the very unsupported FireWire. Don't get me wrong, I would LOVE for this to take off as I am always transfer huge files.... But it's not to beat USB3 sorry.

I'm placing my bets 100% on Thunderbolt outlasting USB 3.0. Thunderbolt is backwards compatible with just about every IO you can think of(including USB 3.0). It's a whole different beast than FireWire.

USB 3.0 is pretty much DOA as far as I'm concerned.
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RobQuads
15 months ago
I'm not sure I would call USB DOA

I've already got a laptop with it on, there are many others now coming out with it. I've got a USB3 key for copying around files.

One of the key things will be cost. Which costs more? USB3 port or Thunderbolt Port (including licensing etc)?
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