Thunderbolt Coming to PCs in April 2012

Monday December 26, 2011 5:53 pm PST by Arnold Kim

DigiTimes reports that Intel has notified partners that the company will "fully release" its Thunderbolt technology in April 2012. Intel is reportedly preparing to launch Thunderbolt-supported motherboards, notebooks and desktop PCs at that time.

Intel and Apple originally partnered on the new technology which has become standard across Apple's MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, Mac mini, and iMac. Digitimes reports that the cost of Thunderbolt technology is expected to drop in the second half of 2012, allowing more widespread adoption.

While Apple does offer Thunderbolt across most of its product line, the first Thunderbolt products have been limited to relatively high end devices. More widespread adoption should help drive adoption by accessory makers that will benefit both Mac and PC users that use Thunderbolt.

Intel has always said that they see both USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt as complementary technologies and plans to support both in their 2012 motherboards.

Top Rated Comments

gullySn0wCat

121 months ago

Finally! Hopefully we get some cheap TB gadgets soon:D

Score: 26 Votes (Like | Disagree)

jwdsail

121 months ago

I did a search for UltraCock (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=UltraCock), but none of the NSFW hits had anything to do with computers. ;)

Sorry 'bout that, autocorrect substituted my superhero name for the product name...

Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)

AidenShaw

121 months ago

In the meantime ... http://www.magma.com/thunderbolt.asp

...according to your link:

In general interoperability with Windows is more straightforward than interoperability with MacOS. The MacOS driver for the PCIe card must be modified/updated to be ‘Thunderbolt Aware’. No changes to drivers are required for support under Windows.
...
There is an interoperability issue with MacOS using graphics (GPU) cards externally through Thunderbolt. Unfortunately, external graphics solutions for MacOS X do not work and we do not expect a resolution from Apple in the short term.

It looks like "the world's most advanced OS" needs some work to match the world's most popular OS.... ;)

Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)

sushi

121 months ago

Makes sense:
* USB 3 for keyboards, mice and occasional fast transfers like thumb drives.
* Thunderbolt for monitors, and applications requiring fast external HHD/SSD times, etc.

Sounds good. :)

Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)

AidenShaw

121 months ago

So, maybe by April 2012, someone will finally take my money and sell me an updated WiebeTech UltraCock drive dock and/or an updated NewerTech Voyager that adds Thunderbolt (with daisy chaining) to the FireWire and eSATA on the current versions.....

I did a search for UltraCock (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=UltraCock), but none of the NSFW hits had anything to do with computers. ;)

Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Slix

121 months ago

I want to see cheaper hard drives and the like for Thunderbolt soon. :D

Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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