Thunderbolt is the new high-speed dual protocol I/O technology which boasts an impressive 10 Gbps transfer rate. Thunderbolt can connect multiple peripherals in a daisy chain to your workstation PC or Laptop and then transfer data both ways (bi-directional) at blistering speed.

Thunderbolt was code named ‘Light Peak’ by Intel during development, and is perhaps better known as such. Apple have recently jumped on the bandwagon and integrated a Thunderbolt I/O port with their new line of MacBook Pro’s.

Intel’s Thunderbolt controllers interconnect a PC with a variety of other devices, transmitting data for both PCIe and DisplayPort protocols. Thunderbolt is compatible with existing DisplayPort devices meaning you don’t need to splash out on new Displays to see the benefit.

This new technology will no doubt be used heavily in the Audio and Video industry due to the low latency and the fast transfer rate, but it also has massive implications for large data transfer operations, backup and archiving. With a high speed redundant array of independent disks, perhaps utilizing solid state drives the potential transfer rate could be unparalleled in the industry.

With everyday home data requirements growing at a rapid rate this type of technology will be adopted into everyday use before we know it.