In case you have forgotten about Thunderbolt, Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) wanted to remind you by putting a number of devices on display at IDF.
All devices except a single RAID-array were behind glass so you couldn’t touch them or see them working, which is probably just as well as several of them were still prototypes.
Thunderbolt is this wonderful new connectivity technology that is twice as fast as USB 3.0, but seems to be heading nowhere quite rapidly. In my humble opinion it has never been enough just to double the speed or the capacity when introducing new technology. At least a fourfold improvement is necessary to void failure. Need I do more than point to the 2.88MB floppy disk as an excellent example?
Whereas there are now close to 300 certified USB 3.0 devices there are still only an extremely limited number of Thunderbolt devices generally available. And with all the active components in the cables you can almost count cables as devices too.
If Intel really wants Thunderbolt to succeed they need to improve the speed to at least 20Gbps – and that should be done before USB decide to move ahead, they have already announced that they can do at least 25Gbps if they want to. But just so you know, Intel has prototype devices with Thunderbolt. So it can be made.S|A
Mads Ølholm
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