Intel Planning 50Gbps Thunderbolt Successor

Just when you thought Thunderbolt was the hottest thing on the market, intel has released a few details about the next it's working on: follow up to the super fast Thunderbolt that builds up to a whopping 50Gbps.

Intel plans fot the new technology to be ready for cunsumer devices to adopt by the 2015 timeframe. Moreover, the new Thunderbolt 2 is aimed not just at dekstop and laptops, but also tablets, smartphones, HDTV and more. Intel's bangking on the new tech being cheaper than today's solutions simply because component pricing will be subtantially lower in years it is today.

While today's Light Peak connections(the code named technology that would eventually be uneiled as Thunderbolt) use copper cables and tranceives, an optical variant was the original spec- and still something being developed. This bew version mixes silicion and fiberoptic tech in a field known as silicion photonics.

Potential prioblems with moving a new interconnect(or even optical cables within Thunderbolt) is the issue of transferring power. Copper cables have no problem in transferring both data and powter, something which fiberoptics cannot do. That means additional wiring must accompany the optic fibers, adding both expense and tickness. Optical cables are inherently more expensive and fragile for consumers to deal with, do.

That may be part of the reasonm that intel currently plans on keeping protocols like Thunderbolt supported alongside the new technology, in a move not dissimiliar from how usb 1.0 and 1.1 devices are typically still supported on the newer chipsets.