It’s official: The next-generation Thunderbolt spec will likely be known as Thunderbolt 5, debuting subsequent yr with sufficient charging energy and bandwidth to help eGPUs and a brand new class of “external AI devices.”

Intel teased the brand new Thunderbolt specification on the finish of 2022, promising that the next-gen Thunderbolt would proceed the development of doubling bandwidth, all the way in which to 80Gbps in a single route. That included a promise, now confirmed, that the 4 lanes of Thunderbolt may very well be reconfigured to permit three lanes from a laptop computer to a monitor, slightly than two. That will permit the choice of a 120Gbps connection to a show, which Intel now refers to as Bandwidth Boost.

Thunderbolt 5 will finally be built-in inside Intel’s Core platforms, primarily laptops. Although Intel has a prototype dock and laptop computer that it’ll start displaying off to clients, built-in Thunderbolt 5 will debut in laptops “in 2024,” Intel executives mentioned. Unfortunately, Intel isn’t saying whether or not that will likely be inside its new Meteor Lake chip or another platform. Thunderbolt 4 and 5 will coexist for a while, although, Intel mentioned, finally giving solution to the up to date spec.

Intel’s discrete Thunderbolt 5 controller will likely be often known as “Barlow Ridge,” a chip which Intel will promote to Thunderbolt dock and gadget makers.

Thunderbolt and the related ecosystem of Thunderbolt docks quietly emerged into the mainstream alongside the expansion of working from residence, as staff found that their laptops had been missing in show and I/O ports, which had been largely changed by a single USB-C connection.

More and extra of those laptops now run the Thunderbolt high-speed connection by way of the USB-C port — and Thunderbolt embeds the DisplayPort protocol. All this implies is that quite a lot of units, from docks to shows to SSDs to even exterior GPUs, may be run over a single Thunderbolt cable. That cable will stay at its present 1-meter size in Thunderbolt 5, Intel executives mentioned, although a 2-meter energetic cable is in growth.

What’s in Thunderbolt 5?

The rule of thumb with Thunderbolt 4 is that the 40Gbps connection permits a laptop computer to connect with two 4K shows working at 60Hz. The further bandwidth of Thunderbolt 5 will permit for three 4K shows working at 144 Hz — which you would possibly name the entry stage for the refresh charges avid gamers sometimes demand.

Intel executives mentioned that Thunderbolt 5 will likely be backwards-compatible with earlier Thunderbolt implementations. If you plug a Thunderbolt 5 gadget or dock right into a Thunderbolt 4-equipped laptop computer, it’s going to work, albeit on the older, slower, 40Gbps pace, they mentioned.

Thunderbolt 5 will even double the obtainable information bandwidth to deal with storage units and eGPUs, going from 32Gbps in Thunderbolt 4 to 64Gbps in Thunderbolt 5. Two further options are value noting: Thunderbolt 5 will provide 240W of charging energy downstream to the PC (plus a most of 15W to related units) and that the spec will help PCIe Gen 4, versus PCIe 3 in Thunderbolt 3. Gamers ought to cheer each enhancements, as the primary will permit some gaming notebooks to retailer their proprietary charging cables contained in the field and use a USB-C charger and cable as an alternative. The second will permit these PCs to connect with sooner PCIe Gen 4 SSDs and units, too.

Intel

The further show bandwidth will even have the ability to drive a number of 8K HDR shows or single shows at as much as 540Hz. (Intel isn’t breaking out the entire prospects fairly but.)

Thunderbolt 5 additionally helps DisplayPort 2.1 (versus model 1.4 HBR3 supported in Thunderbolt 3). The distinction is that DisplayPort 2.1 helps a most 10K decision (10,240×4,320, 60Hz) on a single show, versus the 8K decision DisplayPort 1.4 supported. DP2.1 additionally contains an improved model of Display Stream Compression (DSC 1.2a), which may do a greater job of managing bandwidth versus the older spec.

Intel’s Bandwidth Boost is a brand new characteristic, and one customers shouldn’t have to fret about, particularly if they’ve a regular 1080p or 4K show. According to Jason Ziller, basic supervisor of the Client Connectivity Division at Intel, Bandwidth Boost will likely be dealt with by the Intel Connection Manager utility.

“If it detects a high-bandwidth display that’s requesting the extra bandwidth, [it] will automatically switch into that bandwidth boost mode,” Ziller mentioned. “And then…if you disconnect the display, the same thing would [come into] play, in that it would readjust to whatever devices are connected.”

Though few customers in all probability use Thunderbolt to community two PCs, the obtainable networking bandwidth in Thunderbolt 5 has doubled to 64Gbps. That’s the identical quantity of bandwidth that customers should entry storage units like SSDs — once more, double that of Thunderbolt 4. Given that Thunderbolt 5 helps PCIe Gen 4, laptops may achieve a pleasant I/O efficiency increase, total.

And sure, that features even eGPUs. While Thunderbolt 3-enabled eGPUs exist, few if any Thunderbolt 4 eGPU enclosures had been ever produced. Ziller particularly highlighted Thunderbolt 5 eGPU enclosures as units that may very well be connected to Thunderbolt 5.

A stunning new class may very well be exterior AI accelerators, Ziller mentioned. Intel’s Pat Gelsinger has mentioned that the brand new Meteor Lake processor will usher in the “AI PC,” and apparently Thunderbolt 5 may complement an eGPU with a selected AI field. “We may see a similar thing for different types of external AI accelerator solutions that could be improving things like video, video conferencing, collaboration, audio effects, various types of creator and gamer effects that are using AI, and then the local AI inferencing,” Ziller mentioned, thus avoiding the necessity to ship AI requests to the cloud.

How will you recognize it’s Thunderbolt 5?

Intel has barely reworked the Thunderbolt brand, giving at an up to date look. On a laptop computer, although, the foundations are the identical: Look for a port with a lightning bolt atop it, and it ought to sign a Thunderbolt connector, not a generic charging cable. Thunderbolt cables will proceed to hold the lightning-bolt brand, then a small “5” beneath to designate it as Thunderbolt 5.

Intel

Since technical collateral will solely be supplied to Thunderbolt builders starting within the fourth quarter, docks and units will take a while to ship.

Still, there a number of key points that the market should work out. For one, Thunderbolt is primarily a cell resolution: Ziller mentioned that about 90 % of all Core laptops ship with Thunderbolt, however there’s a “much lower attach rate” on desktops, particularly highly effective gaming desktops. More and extra screens at the moment are together with a USB-C connection, but it surely’s nonetheless unclear whether or not any could have Thunderbolt in-built, both as a hub or a show connection. The irony is that Thunderbolt 5’s bandwidth exceeds DisplayPort, however that continues to be a preferred connector on graphics playing cards.

Ziller additionally didn’t actually communicate to the lingering query of USB4 v2, USB’s personal 80Gbps reply to Thunderbolt 5. Intel has mentioned earlier than it’s going to license Thunderbolt to anybody. But due to what’s believed to be Intel’s refusal to certify non-Intel platforms, notebooks with AMD Ryzen chips inside use USB4; Intel Core notebooks use Thunderbolt.

“From a technical standpoint, the Thunderbolt 5 silicon could go into any device that has the appropriate connections,” Ziller mentioned when requested if this case would change with Thunderbolt 5. “So theoretically, it could be done.”

Ziller additionally didn’t handle the elephant within the room: a competing expertise, DisplayHyperlink, is arguably cheaper and extra steady than Thunderbolt itself.

A DisplayLink USB-C dock makes use of a hardware-driven compression expertise from Synaptics to supply lots of the advantages that Thunderbolt units do, for much less. But possibly as Thunderbolt units change into extra pervasive, DisplayHyperlink docks will fade away? We’ll have to attend and see.

Thunderbolt 5 options

• Overall throughput (together with show): 80Gbps, as much as 120Gbps upstream through Bandwidth Boost
• Data throughput (storage, eGPUs): 64Gbps
• Standards supported: DisplayPort 2.1, PCI Express 4.0, USB4 v2, USB3 20Gbps
• Thunderbolt networking: 64Gbps
• Power supply: 140W downstream PC charging (required), 240W downstream PC charging (optionally available), 15W per gadget
• Backwards compatibility: Thunderbolt 4/3, USB 4/3, DisplayPort 2.1
• Cable size: 1-meter (passive); 2-meter energetic cable in growth