Intel striking a Thunderbolt

Intel, the Chip manufacturer has announced it is to roll out a new high-speed technology that may cut down on cabling for peripherals.

Thunderbolt, formerly known as Light Peak, promises transfer speeds twice as fast as USB 3.0.  Initially, it won't reach its theoretical maximum because Intel has opted to use copper wires rather than fibre optic cables, but they have suggested that they will move to the higher speeds over time.

At launch, the technology that allows dual bi-directional transfer over copper cable, will be limited to 10 Gigabits per second - twice as fast as USB 3.0, but still well below the theoretical maximum using optical cables.  They claim, that future versions will be able to reach 100 Gb/sec.

Apple will become the first manufacturer to use Thunderbolt, on its Macbook Pro computers.