Up Up and Away, Thunderbolt!

ByMike Moffit

It may sound like an epic superhero name or a new prototype super-car from Chevy, but Thunderbolt is actually part of a new I/O port from Apple that was introduced with today’s refresh of the MacBook Pro line. It is based on Intel’s data transfer technology (originally codenamed Light Peak) and has been combined with the existing Mini DisplayPort on the left side of all three models of MacBook Pro. This means that your storage devices and displays can connect to one compact port, though adapters will be needed to have more than one device connected at a time. The technology has the potential to become the next widely adopted I/O standard, but in order to ensure its success, third party companies will have to begin supporting it.

So what is Thunderbolt all about? Speed, speed and more speed! The standard for some time now has been a potential data transfer rate of 480Mbps using USB 2.0. FireWire 800 could accomplish 800Mbps, but was used on fewer devices. The recently introduced USB 3.0 jumps up the chart topping out at 5Gbps. Thunderbolt, however, races past the competition at a whopping 10Gbps. This means that you can transfer a full 1080p HD movie in about 30 seconds on average. To learn more about Thunderbolt, visit Apple’s site. For more information on the new MacBook Pros click here!

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