Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 14.22
Thunderbolt Technology logo.
Similar to FireWire, Thunderbolt connections can be daisy-chained. This means that a
peripheral device can have two Thunderbolt connectors, allowing users to connect mul-
tiple devices to a PC via Thunderbolt cables between the devices in a chain. The technical
details of Thunderbolt include
• Dual-channel bidirectional full-duplex connections.
• 10Gbps transfer rate per channel in each direction.
• Electrical cables can be up to 3 meters in length.
• Electrical cables can provide up to 10W of power for bus-powered devices.
• Cables and devices are hot-pluggable.
• Daisy chain up to seven devices (including up to two displays).
Some view Thunderbolt as a competitor to USB 3.0, however, Intel has stated that Thun-
derbolt and USB 3.0 are complementary technologies and that it will build both Thunder-
bolt and USB 3.0 connections into future motherboard chipsets. This eliminates the need
for separate controller chips and allows both of these interfaces to be built-in to new sys-
tems for little or no cost. Because Thunderbolt is designed to carry both audio/video and
dataandsupportsdaisy-chaining,itisseenasmoreofacompetitortooreventualreplace-
