Intel’s new interface Thunderbolt is on a mission to replace all, or nearly all, cables. Currently only Apple has integrated Thunderbolt into its notebooks and desktop, but in 2012 others are expected to use Thunderbolt. HP isn’t very impressed by the technology today and sees it as superfluous when we have USB 3.0.
HP was one of the first parties to show interest in Intel Thunderbolt, but the interest has cooled off since the launch. The problem is that HP doesn’t see any value in adding Thunderbolt and says that USB 3.0 more than good enough. HP’s Xavier Lauwaert said it’s a standard that doesn’t have a place in the market and he is yet to be convinced.
Thunderbolt use the same kind of port as DisplayPort with MacBooks
Thunderbolt is the fastest interface we have today with speeds up to 10 Gbit/s. USB 3.0 reaches its max at 5 Gbit/s, but at the same time we don’t have a single drive that reach this “limitation”, and ten we have the fact that USB 3.0 units are compatible with older USB 1.1 and 2.0 standards and vice-versa.
The Thunderbolt technology currently supports PCI-Express and DisplayPort protocols, but in the future it hopes to integrate more protocols and increase the bandwidth to really make it one cable for all purposes. Currently the technology is expensive and there is a lack of compatible hardware so it looks like Intel has a long ahead of it before it becomes an attractive alternative for the OEMs and consumers.
Source: Reuters
