If there is a fight for hegemony in one sector, that is undoubtedly the connection ports for all kinds of peripherals. There have been many attempts, many battles and at the same time there has always been a single winner and many defeated. Now, Intel seems to have been another of those defeated by a bus that does not stop gaining followers such as USB, but it will not be so easy to get rid of the blues, since they will continue to fight thanks to Thunderbolt 4.
The official presentation at CES left enough gaps and data in the air, where it was seen a rather restrained and very little participative Intel to be an event and a type of product that is supposed to have finished specifications.
Although there are missing features to reveal, the leaks have done their job and many details about this new version have been confirmed little by little, what can we expect?
Intel Thunderbolt 4: stop being a rival to be a USB 4 companion
Although it was initially stipulated with the fact that Intel was doing a simple facelift on Thunderbolt 3, the reluctance to talk more about its new version had a reason for being. Thunderbolt 4 will not be a simple facelift, nor does it provide something incredible, but together with USB 4 they will be a perfect complement to all current and future systems.
The liberalization of the licenses of its bus and the direct incorporation to its processors will bring a series of improvements for the company’s platforms and this is part of the mystery that surrounds it.
Availability
It is something that Intel has already confirmed and there will be no surprises around here beyond that we now know that it will be included as a great novelty in the Tiger Lake and Rocket Lake platform. Therefore, we can see it in the first laptops and desktop PCs later this year 2020.
Performance
In its presentation, Intel left serious doubts, which some time later has been clarified by saying that it will be four times faster than USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) . Therefore, we are talking about 40 Gbps, that is, the same speed as the current Thunderbolt 3.
Why hasn’t Intel provided it with higher performance? Well, for the simple reason that Thunderbolt is now integrated within USB-IF and it is logical that it equates its performance to USB 4 to be a perfect complement to this when needed.
Main features
Its delay in reaching the market focuses on the use of PCIe 4.0 to offer this speed, which would mean currently consuming a large part of the current PCIe 3.0. By doubling the bandwidth with version 4.0, there is no problem in offering directly by CPU the 40 Gbps that the bus has.
On the other hand, it remains to know the power options and screens available for its use, something that should also be increased and possibly is its main novelty and for which nothing has been revealed yet.
What we do know is that it will maintain its USB-C connector , which is gradually prevailing in all kinds of sectors and which is undoubtedly the future, something that peripheral manufacturers should start updating in their products, since everything points to Rocket Lake coming with a large number of them.
So what is the main advantage of Thunderbolt 4? Curiously, full support for all the features of USB 4. Although they differ as ports themselves, USB 4 will only run at 20 Gbps, while those based on Thunderbolt 4 will be able to do it at 40 Gbps and also enjoy the improvements in Regarding availability of screens or charging devices with higher amps and watts.
In summary, Thunderbolt 4 is a more advanced and specific USB 4 of which we only have to know some details.
