Intel has announced the latest in next-gen connectivity with Thunderbolt 5, a single-cable solution designed to deliver up to three times more bandwidth than its predecessor to benefit even the most demanding PC user.
“Thunderbolt 5 will provide industry-leading performance and capability for connecting computers to monitors, docks, storage and more,” said Jason Ziller, general manager of the Client Connectivity Division at Intel. “Intel is excited to continue our tradition of leadership for wired connectivity solutions. Thunderbolt is now the mainstream port for connectivity on mobile PCs, and delivering the next generation of performance with Thunderbolt 5 will provide even more capability for the most demanding users.”
Content creators, gamers and professionals need plenty of bandwidth to ensure high-resolution displays and low-latency visuals when working with increasingly larger video and data files. Thunderbolt 5 improves upon Thunderbolt 4 in several ways. It offers 80 gigabits per second (Gbps) of bi-directional bandwidth, with Bandwidth Boost mode, which requires a high-bandwidth display, kicking it up to 120 Gbps, triple the bandwidth of Thunderbolt 4.
For faster storage and external graphics, Thunderbolt 5 has double the PCI Express data throughput and double the bandwidth of Thunderbolt Networking for high-speed PC-to-PC connections. And, being built according to industry standards, including USB4 V2, DisplayPort 2.1 and PCI Express Gen 4, it's fully compatible with previous versions. Thunderbolt 5 is able to deliver these performance increases by utilizing a new signaling technology called PAM-3.
“Microsoft is excited to closely collaborate with Intel to bring the latest USB4 standard to Windows customers,” said Ian LeGrow, corporate vice president of Core OS product management at Microsoft Corp. “Thunderbolt 5 is fully USB 80 Gbps standard compliant to support the next generation of high-performance displays, storage and connectivity.”
In the below video, produced by Intel, the Thunderbolt 5 is demonstrated on the first prototype laptop with built-in Thunderbolt 5 connected to a Thunderbolt dock.
Source: Intel