CEO Gregory Bryant visited the Intel office in Israel and decided to post some photos on Twitter. One of the photos shows Thunderbolt 5 specs. Three of the four photos are still online, but the Thunderbolt 5 detail image has been removed. Terms like ’80G’, ‘PAM-3’ and ‘the existing usb-c ecosystem’ point out that it is the successor to Thunderbolt 4. The bandwidth increases from 40 Gbps to 80 Gbps, while it still works via the familiar USB-C connection.
The leaked info also indicates that it is being tested with an N6 chip, a production process of TSMC. This company is also a supplier to Apple. This would be “promising results” offer.
The information can be seen on a poster in the background of the photo of Bryant, who works at Intel as head of the Client Computing Group. The new technique is shown on the poster ‘USB 80G’ mentioned, but will undoubtedly be called Thunderbolt 5 in common parlance. Also notable about the poster is the fact that a “new PAM-3 modulation technology” is called. This indicates that Intel is going to use a new system for transferring bits. Normally, a data line passes one bit at a time, with the electrical signal constantly changing. This is called NRZ encoding.
Pulse-Amplitude Modulation 3 (PAM-3) allows the transfer of three bits per two cycles and is thus 50% faster than NRZ encoding. There is also PAM-4 with two bits per cycle, but this is more expensive and more complex to implement. That is probably why PAM-3 was chosen first.
What good is Thunderbolt 5?
With Thunderbolt 4, the speed did not increase: just like with Thunderbolt 3, it is at 40 Gbps. Thunderbolt 4 itself offered a number of other benefits, such as:
- Doubling the minimum video and data requirements of Thunderbolt 3.
- Video: Supports two 4K displays or one 8K display.
- Data: PCIe at 32 Gbps for storage speeds of up to 3,000 MBps.
- Supports docks with up to four Thunderbolt 4 ports.
- Charging a PC through at least one computer port or through a docking station.
Thunderbolt 5 is going to offer a higher speed, namely doubling. The bandwidth goes up from 40 Gbps to 80 Gbps. So you can transfer your files faster and allow devices to communicate with each other faster. In addition, there will be some improvements in functionality, for example when it comes to connecting 4K and 8K displays.
When will Apple offer Thunderbolt 5?
Apple's current products will still work with Thunderbolt 3, although there are some few accessories that already support Thunderbolt 4. The fact that Intel is now working on Thunderbolt 5 doesn't directly impact your purchasing decisions. It's still in early development and it could be a few years before we see MacBooks with Thunderbolt 5 on the shelves. In terms of connection, nothing changes at first glance, because it goes via USB-C.
When purchasing accessories, you should already take into account the support of Thunderbolt 4 (and then Thunderbolt 5).