Intel"s Thunderbolt data and video port hardware technology has not really caught on as quickly as its biggest rival, USB 3.0. This week, new rumors hit the Internet about what Intel plans to put in the next version, which will likely be called, to no one"s surprise, Thunderbolt 3.
The report comes from Chinese VR Zone, which claims it received leaked slides from Intel about Thunderbolt 3, which state that it has the code name Alpine Ridge. According to their story, Thunderbolt 3-based PCs and devices will have transfer speeds up to 40Gbps, up from the current limit of 20Gbps for Thunderbolt 2. USB 3.1, the latest version of the older port technology, has a speed transfer limit of 10Gbps.
The slides also show that the connector for Thunderbolt 3 ports will be smaller than the current version, which means adapters will have to be used when connecting Thunderbolt 2 and 3 devices. It will provide power charging up to 100 watts while at the same time reducing its own power consumption by 50 percent. It will also support PCIe generation-3.
Unfortunately, the article didn"t offer any information on when Thunderbolt 3 will be made available in PCs. While the two previous generations have been put in Mac computers, makers of Windows-based PCs have mostly decided to support the rival USB 3.0, which has a much lower transfer speed but is fully backwards compatible with a ton of other devices that use the two previous versions of the port with no adapters needed.
Source: Chinese VR Zone via MacRumors | Image via Chinese VR Zone