Intel Announces Thunderbolt 2 at Computex: 20Gbps Bi-Directional Bandwidth per Channel
by Anand Lal Shimpi on June 4, 2013 7:18 PM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
- Intel
- Thunderbolt
- Trade Shows
- Computex 2013
Earlier this year Intel revealed some details about Falcon Ridge, its 2014 Thunderbolt controller. Today it went a little further and gave the updated Thunderbolt spec a new name: Thunderbolt 2.
New details are scarce unfortunately. Thunderbolt 2 moves to a new 20Gbps bi-directional channel that can handle both data and/or display. Current implementations are limited to 10Gbps per channel for data or display, both can't be sent over the same channel.
Thunderbolt 2 will support DisplayPort 1.2 and 4K video. Intel expects the first Thunderbolt 2 controllers to go into production by the end of this year, and ramp into early 2014. Given the timeframe I no longer believe this is a Broadwell play. It also seems too early for the rumored 9-series chipset refresh. Thunderbolt 2 may end up appearing out of phase with both of those.
Source: Intel
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repoman27 - Wednesday, June 5, 2013 - link
"Current implementations are limited to 10Gbps per channel for data or display, both can't be sent over the same channel."This... isn't true. You can drive two 2560x1440 displays while writing 440 MB/s to a Thunderbolt RAID with everything daisy chained off of a single port. The two displays alone require 11.6 Gbit/s which is > 10 Gbit/s. Intel has also stated in the past that each direction in each channel can carry display and/or PCIe data.
DarkXale - Wednesday, June 5, 2013 - link
You sure that math is right?2560(x-res) * 1440(y-res) * 24(bit-depth) * 60(refresh rate) = 5,308,416,000 bits
Thats roughly equal to 4.94 gigabits per display if my math isn't busted.
repoman27 - Wednesday, June 5, 2013 - link
So actually following the link to Intel's PR spiel yields: "Current versions of Thunderbolt...are limited to an individual 10Gbs channel each for both data and display..." Which is not terribly clear, but I believe is actually trying to say that Thunderbolt devices can currently only make use of a single 10Gbit/s channel at a time.Zandros - Wednesday, June 5, 2013 - link
Yeah, I was wondering about that too.Also, apparently Anand is expecting Apple to go 2560x1440@2x instead of 4k. 20 Gbit/s isn't enough for that, so…?
Hrel - Wednesday, June 5, 2013 - link
What's the licensing fee? Infinity bagillion dollars Intel?