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Thunderbolt 5 Announced With Up to 3x More Bandwidth
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No. At this point in time Thunderbolt is basically USB4 ( or USB4v2 in TBv5 case). USB4 leaves a bunch of useful stuff 'optional'. Primarily Thunderbolt makes a larger subset of the USB4 standard mandatory. Plus it pragmatically mandates that you don't 'cut corners' when implementing USB4.
All of this 'extra mandatory' stuff gets certified by Intel and then get to put a "Thunderbolt" label on. More than a few vendors are just going to slap USB4v2 on their implementation and just ship it ( skipping the official TB certification. That is cheaper).
TBv5 also pulls folks toward correctly implementing DisplayPort v2.1.
[ Even Thunderbolt v1-3 were not compatible with FireWire either; before the 'merge' with USB. ]
Probably not.
Apple has been dragging their feet on DisplayPort v2 (and v2.1 ). That is required for TBv5.
A decent chunk of Mac line up isn't Thunderbolt v4 qualified. ( don't support enough external displays. )
Apple probably isn't completely absent , but they are pretty far from being core technology drivers at this point.
How about if Apple stops limiting the speeds through software and just let it work at full speed?
Well that was quick. I was just getting use to TB4 on Macs and Windows, which is very good, and...wahtever.
Now this will be better
Thunderbolt v4 is not going away anytime soon.
" ...
Intel says that Thunderbolt 4 and 5 will co-exist for the next several years, or longer, with the new spec slotting in as the premium tier. ...
...
Intel positions Thunderbolt 5 for creators and gamers, saying they need the increased throughput for high-performance devices. Thunderbolt 4 is required for Evo and vPro-certified devices, but Thunderbolt 5 support will not be — Thunderbolt 5 will slot in as the premium tier of connectivity performance, and Intel says Thunderbolt 4 will continue to serve as the primary interface of choice for mainstream and business users for several years, if not longer. Thunderbolt 5 will arrive in 2024.
... "
Thunderbolt 5 Debuts, 120 Gbps Speed is 3x Faster Than Previous Gen
240W charging cables are universal, too.
TBv5 is being positioned as the 'upscale' / 'expensive' feature that will not be mainstream.
Intel isn't even handing up the tech docs on this until Q4 2023. So the 'sytsems launching' in 2024 is very likely a small handful of systems with a discrete TB controll so they can say they 'hit' the date. Probably not going to so much substantive number of products until CES 2025 convention and then it will take a decent amount of that year to actually ship those demos.
Intel probably won't have volume SoC packages for laptops that support this shipping from PC manufactors until 2025. ( again demo units Q4 2024 and 'buzz' generation at CES 2025. )
Apple will always be at the forefront of innovation and pushing technological boundaries far beyond anything you could possibly envisage.
I wonder what the cable length limit is? And will it be more restrictive than previous TB cable length limits?
I agree. I really hope we see a wider adoption of 5K+/120+ Hz displays in the near future - long overdue IMO.
Awesome, but this probably won't make its way into M3 Macs and we'll be waiting until 2025. But ... hopefully I'm horribly wrong.
Don't worry! I'm sure our politicians will come up with ideas for a speed limit
Didn't take long...Don't worry! I'm sure our politicians will come up with ideas for a speed limit
ArrowLake probably will not be labeled "15th gen"; new numbering system coming. And bigger micro-archiectural shift coming that a new numbering system would be helpful in indicating the substantive change. (e.g., HyperThreading gone. AVX10. etc. )
And Q3 ... shipping in volume? Probably not. Intel may have a 'show' in Q3 , but shipping is doubtful. Meteor Lake isn't coming until Q4 2024 and pretty doubtful they'll 'kill it' in less than a year.
Maybe. Intel isn't trying to make TBv4 'disappear'. They intend to run the two versions concurrently with v4 targetted toward mainstream. Apple needs to do work just get their volume Mac units on the TBv4.... let alone v5. (e.g, the Macbook Air is still USB 4 / Thunderbolt 3 ). Apple hasn't gotten to v4 let alone v5 in the bulk of their Macbook/laptops shipped. Apple's Display Controllers are large so they tend to undershoot on number of video out streams supported. TBv5 raises the bar to minimum 3. Apple needs to do work just to get to two ( and v4 qualification).
Apple haven't covered DisplayPort v2.1 either.
Being on some TSMC N3 variant should give them bigger transistor budget to do more , but there is lots of other stuff they probalby also like to add. Getting to TBv5 ( and supporting a much wider range of non-Apple displays ) as soon as possible may not be a top priority.
Ah I see, so it ultimately depends on the computer and not just whether or not it has thunderbolt? I realize you would need a dongle, or rather a series of dongles/adaptors, but it at least seems to be something that exists, unlike USB where a FireWire device can never be connected at all.
the firewire adapter for thunderbolt is basically a tiny fw pcie card w/ 1 port. The reason you can plug a usb device into a thunderbolt 3 port with a cheap adapter is because usb is included on thunderbolt soc.
Does this mean that maybe the next time I need an upgrade MacBooks airs/pros could have better multi display support?!