Thunderbolt: what it is and what it is for

Surely, in the last few months you have heard of Thunderbolt technology, but you may not know what Thunderbolt is and what it is for. In this article, we are going to try to tell you clearly and concisely so that you have no doubts. Prepared?

What is Thunderbolt

Thunderbolt is a new connection that is based on the DisplayPort and PCI Express architectures. It has been developed with Intel but in collaboration with Apple. And right now, it is presented as one of the strongest technologies in Apple's MacBook Pro.

It is expected that most manufacturers that implement Thunderbolts in their devices, bet on electrical connections, because they are the ones that allow the transmission of electricity. As Apple has done despite having some problems with the Thunderbolt 3.

What is Thunderbolt for?

Thunderbolt's goal is to unite in just 1 cable:

• High-speed data transmission.Video in high definition quality.Up to a maximum of 10 W power.

Through Thunderbolt we will have two bidirectional 1 GB / s channels. This for data connections is equivalent to 20 times faster (faster) performance than USB 2.0 to give you an idea. This is due to being based on PCI Express.

If we focus on the field of video, we see that it is a bit the same as DisplayPort. But in this case, we have only one cable for data and video… so it is designed so that the peripherals are connected in chains of up to 6, requiring 2 compatible ports.

In the new MacBook Pro the results are impressive and it is one of its main attractions.

Conclusion, is it worth betting on Thunderbolt?

Of course. It is the future, although it will still go slowly because there are other connectors, but it is clear that it has already made a difference and is only going in one direction and it is for the better. If you passed files through FireWire 800 you will notice a lot of the difference, because it is up to 12 times faster.