Yesterday Intel announced its updated Redwood Ridge Thunderbolt controllers (adding 4K/DP1.2 support, lower power operation and slightly lower BOM cost) as well as next year's Falcon Ridge family of Thunderbolt controllers. I assumed that Falcon Ridge would ship alongside Broadwell in late 2014 but I just got word that the new Thunderbolt controllers will begin production by the end of this year and ramp volume through 2014. I don't have more specific dates than that, but it's still good news. All Intel is saying about Falcon Ridge is the spec includes a speed bump to 20Gbps per lane up from the current controllers with 10Gbps per lane. Intel's own presentation refers to a single channel/two lane Falcon Ridge controller, delivering no additional bandwidth above existing...
Meet the 2012 Thunderbolt Controllers: Cactus Ridge
Image Courtesy iFixit Thunderbolt has seen limited use this year - the standard has only been implemented by Apple and Sony, the rest of the PC market will have to...
16 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 9/13/2011The Thunderbolt Devices Trickle In: Magma's ExpressBox 3T
Intel's Thunderbolt interface is frustratingly fast. The frustration comes from the fact that there just aren't many Thunderbolt devices out on the market today, not to mention that the...
17 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 9/7/2011Sonnet Announces Thunderbolt to ExpressCard/34 Adapter
Sonnet announced a Thunderbolt to ExpressCard/34 adapter today. The exact name of the product is the Echo ExpressCard/34 Thunderbolt Adapter and it is simply a box with an...
6 by Kristian Vättö on 8/25/2011Village Instruments CEO Promises Graphics Card Enclosure for Thunderbolt
Village Instruments CEO Hubert Chen wrote an open letter to Facebook last week, attempting to gague customer interest in an external PCI Express graphics card enclosure for Thunderbolt. He...
19 by Andrew Cunningham on 8/3/2011Eagle Ridge: The Cheaper, (optionally) Smaller Thunderbolt Controller
If you've seen any of the new Thunderbolt Macs torn apart you will recognize the piece of silicon above. That flip-chip package is Intel's first Thunderbolt controller, codename: Light...
20 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 7/28/2011PROMISE Shows Off Pegasus R6 For The Camera (Professionals)
Our R6 review left us with a lingering question: who was this speed for? Now we know. Adobe and PROMISE demonstrated just how good their Thunderbolt equipped Pegasus R6...
4 by Jason Inofuentes on 7/27/2011Apple Updates Cinema Display, It's a Thunderbolt Display Now
Along with today’s MacBook Air and Mac mini updates, Apple has also updated their 27” Cinema Display. The display now goes by a new name: the Apple Thunderbolt Display...
94 by Kristian Vättö on 7/20/20112011 Mac Mini goes Sandy Bridge: Specs, details and our thoughts
The Mac mini is yet another Mac to be updated with Intel’s Sandy Bridge CPUs and Thunderbolt. The Mini saw its last update on June 15th 2010 so a...
87 by Kristian Vättö on 7/20/2011Promise Pegasus R6 & Mac Thunderbolt Review
One by one the barriers to mobile computing have been falling. In the early days you could move to a notebook but you'd give up a lot of CPU...
92 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 7/8/2011Apple Thunderbolt Cable & Promise Pegasus RAID System Available Now
This morning Apple finally announced availability of its first Thunderbolt cable alongside Promise's Pegasus external RAID solution. We've previewed the Pegasus in the past but today we received a...
50 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 6/28/2011Correction: Ivy Bridge and Thunderbolt - Featured, not Integrated
Intel just emailed me to clarify a point from its Ivy Bridge presentation on Tuesday. While USB 3.0 will finally be integrated into the chipset, Thunderbolt will not. Intel...
20 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 6/1/2011Computex 2011: Some Time with Promise's Thunderbolt Devices
Yesterday Intel told us that Ivy Bridge would feature both USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt on its Ivy Bridge platform (USB 3.0 will be integrated into the chipset, Thunderbolt...
8 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 6/1/2011Intel Integrates USB 3.0 into Ivy Bridge Platform, Thunderbolt Optional
We knew about the first feature on this list (USB 3.0) would come with Ivy Bridge's 7-series chipset, but the second one was something I just heard about today...
26 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 5/31/2011The New 2011 iMacs: Specs and Details
Well, it’s happened again – Apple’s online store went down briefly this morning, meaning that the secretive company was stocking its virtual shelves with new product. As expected, when...
106 by Andrew Cunningham on 5/3/2011Intel's Codename Light Peak Launches as Thunderbolt
Back at IDF 2010, we wrote about Intel Light Peak nearing its eventual launch in 2011. Back then, the story was a 10 Gbps or faster physical link tunneling...
108 by Brian Klug on 2/25/2011














