What’s New: Intel is well on its way to making the inno­va­ti­on deli­ver­ed with Thun­der­bolt™ 3 available to ever­yo­ne. Today, Intel announ­ced that it con­tri­bu­ted the Intel Thun­der­bolt pro­to­col spe­ci­fi­ca­ti­on to the USB Pro­mo­ter Group, enab­ling other chip makers to build Thun­der­bolt com­pa­ti­ble sili­con, royal­ty-free. In addi­ti­on, the USB Pro­mo­ter Group announ­ced the pen­ding release of the USB4 spe­ci­fi­ca­ti­on, based on the Thun­der­bolt pro­to­col. The con­ver­gence of the under­ly­ing Thun­der­bolt and USB pro­to­cols will increase com­pa­ti­bi­li­ty among USB Type‑C con­nec­tor-based pro­ducts, sim­pli­fy­ing how peo­p­le con­nect their devices.

“Releasing the Thun­der­bolt pro­to­col spe­ci­fi­ca­ti­on is a signi­fi­cant mile­stone for making today’s simp­lest and most ver­sa­ti­le port available to ever­yo­ne. This, in com­bi­na­ti­on with the inte­gra­ti­on of Thun­der­bolt 3 into upco­ming Intel pro­ces­sors is a win-win for the indus­try and consumers.”
–Jason Zil­ler, gene­ral mana­ger, Cli­ent Con­nec­ti­vi­ty Divi­si­on at Intel

Why It Mat­ters: Pre­vious­ly, Intel shared plans to inte­gra­te Thun­der­bolt 3 into future Intel CPUs and to release the Thun­der­bolt pro­to­col spe­ci­fi­ca­ti­on to the indus­try. As detail­ed at CES 2019, Intel’s upco­ming 10nm pro­ces­sor code-named “Ice Lake” will be the first to inte­gra­te Thun­der­bolt 3. Pro­ces­sor inte­gra­ti­on, com­bi­ned with today’s announce­ment, is expec­ted to dri­ve lar­ge-sca­le, main­stream adop­ti­on of Thunderbolt.

Intel-Thunderbolt3‑4 Bild 4 von 4  Intel Thun­der­bolt (Quel­le: Intel.com)

Indus­try adop­ti­on of Thun­der­bolt 3 is acce­le­ra­ting. Thun­der­bolt 3 is ful­ly sup­port­ed in Win­dows 10*, macOS* and Linux*; volu­mes of PCs with the­se ports con­ti­nue to dou­ble every year into the tens of mil­li­ons; and all the latest Macs* have Thun­der­bolt 3 ports. More than 400 PC designs have been enab­led with Thun­der­bolt 3. Peri­phe­ral device volu­mes also con­ti­nue to dou­ble annu­al­ly with more than 450 cer­ti­fied devices from a wide num­ber of pro­duct cate­go­ries, inclu­ding docks, dis­plays, sto­rage and exter­nal graphics.

“Rea­li­zing HP’s visi­on for the office of the future requi­res seam­less con­nec­ti­vi­ty, powerful per­for­mance and total sim­pli­ci­ty to enable peo­p­le to unleash their crea­ti­vi­ty whe­re­ver their work­day takes them,” said Bill Gor­den, vice pre­si­dent, Com­mer­cial Note­book Manage­ment at HP. “Thun­der­bolt 3 is a powerful addi­ti­on to our new note­books and docks that deli­vers the fle­xi­bi­li­ty sought by IT depart­ments and the expe­ri­en­ces peo­p­le love.”

“Sam­sung Elec­tro­nics is respon­ding to incre­asing con­su­mer demand for Thun­der­bolt 3 by offe­ring sleek and powerful note­books and other peri­phe­ral devices,” said Min­cheol Lee, vice pre­si­dent, PC Stra­te­gic Mar­ke­ting at Sam­sung Elec­tro­nics. “We look for­ward to our ongo­ing col­la­bo­ra­ti­on with Intel to bring more inno­va­ti­ve Thun­der­bolt 3 pro­ducts to market.”

In March 2019, Intel Cor­po­ra­ti­on announ­ced that it has con­tri­bu­ted the Thun­der­bolt pro­to­col spe­ci­fi­ca­ti­on to the USB Pro­mo­ter Group. The USB Pro­mo­ter Group also announ­ced the pen­ding release of the USB4 spe­ci­fi­ca­ti­on, based on the Thun­der­bolt pro­to­col. The con­ver­gence of the under­ly­ing Thun­der­bolt and USB pro­to­cols will increase com­pa­ti­bi­li­ty among USB Type‑C con­nec­tor-based pro­ducts, sim­pli­fy­ing how peo­p­le con­nect their devices. (Cre­dit: Tim Herman/Intel Corporation)

 

How Thun­der­bolt Leads with Best-in-Class Solu­ti­ons: Thun­der­bolt deli­vers world-class per­for­mance, ease-of-use and qua­li­ty by uni­fy­ing mul­ti­ple indus­try spe­ci­fi­ca­ti­ons into an indus­try lea­ding set of pro­duct capa­bi­li­ties. Thun­der­bolt is sup­port­ed by an end-to-end solu­ti­on enab­ling pro­gram for com­pu­ter, peri­phe­ral device and cable makers to help ensu­re a con­sis­tent expe­ri­ence for all Thun­der­bolt con­nec­ted pro­ducts. Intel works with the indus­try to defi­ne pro­duct capa­bi­li­ties, vali­da­ti­on test­ing and rigo­rous cer­ti­fi­ca­ti­on requi­re­ments, including:

• Working clo­se­ly with Micro­soft* to deli­ver built-in Win­dows 10 sup­port for Thun­der­bolt 3, opti­mi­zed for plug and play, plat­form power manage­ment, sys­tem char­ging and sys­tem wake features
• Intel CPU plat­form and peri­phe­ral refe­rence design validation
• Exten­si­ve end-to-end test­ing to help ensu­re inter­ope­ra­bi­li­ty across a wide ran­ge of pro­duct types and manufacturers
• Man­da­to­ry Thun­der­bolt cer­ti­fi­ca­ti­on for all com­pu­ters, peri­phe­ral devices and cables
• Cable enab­ling and cable qua­li­ty audits for Thun­der­bolt cable manufacturers

Intel and other indus­try lea­ders con­ti­nue to inno­va­te on Thun­der­bolt tech­no­lo­gy to deli­ver a lea­ding con­nec­ti­vi­ty solu­ti­on, from sili­con and cables to PCs and peri­phe­ral devices.

More Con­text: Thun­der­bolt and Thun­der­bolt cer­ti­fied products

 

About Intel

Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), a lea­der in the semi­con­duc­tor indus­try, is sha­ping the data-cen­tric future with com­pu­ting and com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons tech­no­lo­gy that is the foun­da­ti­on of the world’s inno­va­tions. The company’s engi­nee­ring exper­ti­se is hel­ping address the world’s grea­test chal­lenges as well as hel­ping secu­re, power and con­nect bil­li­ons of devices and the infra­struc­tu­re of the smart, con­nec­ted world – from the cloud to the net­work to the edge and ever­y­thing in bet­ween. Find more infor­ma­ti­on about Intel at newsroom.intel.com and intel.com.

Intel and the Intel logo are trade­marks of Intel Cor­po­ra­ti­on in the United Sta­tes and other countries.

*Other names and brands may be clai­med as the pro­per­ty of others.