The official presentation at CES left enough gaps and details in the air, where Intel was seen to be slow and slow to be the event and product type that should finish the set.
Although there are some non-revealing features, the leak has done their job and many details about this new version have been slightly confirmed, what can we expect?
Intel Thunderbolt 4: stop being a USB 4 partner
Though initially attributed to the fact that Intel was making a simple facelift on Thunderbolt 3, hesitation to talk more about its new version was justifiable. The Thunderbolt 4 will not be an easy facelift, and it offers nothing spectacular, but in conjunction with USB 4 they will be a perfect complement to all current and future plans.
The ease of its bus licenses and the direct installation of its processors will bring about a series of improvements to the company's platforms and this is part of the mystery surrounding it.
Availability
It's something Intel has already confirmed and there will be no more surprises here than what we now know will be included as a great feature on the Tiger Lake and Rocket Lake platforms. So, we can see it on the first laptops and desktop PCs by the year 2020.
Working
At its launch, Intel left serious doubts, which were later specified to be four times faster than USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps). So we talk 40 Gbps, that is, the same speed as the current Thunderbolt 3.
Why didn't Intel provide high performance? Well, for the simple reason that Thunderbolt is now integrated into USB-IF and it makes sense that it balances its performance with USB 4 to be a perfect complement to this when needed.
The main features
His delay in reaching the market is concentrated on implementation PCIe 4.0 offering such speed, which would mean using a large portion of PCIe 3.0 currently. With twice the bandwidth of the 4.0 version, there is no problem in providing the exact CPU the 40 Gbps bus has.
On the other hand, there are still unknown power options and screens available for use, something that should and should be expanded and may have been its main feature and which has not been revealed yet.
What we do know is that it will maintain its connector USB-C, which is slowly evolving in all kinds of sectors and undoubtedly the future, something that peripheral manufacturers should begin to review in their products, since it all points to Rocket Lake's immense reach.
So what is the main benefit of Thunderbolt 4? Surprisingly, full support for all USB features 4. Although they vary as ports themselves, USB 4 will only work at 20 Gbps, while the Thunderbolt 4-based one will be able to do it at 40 Gbps and enjoy the improvements in regards to the availability of screens or devices charging with high amps and watts.
In summary, Thunderbolt 4 is an advanced and very specific USB 4 where we need to know some details.
Table of Contents
