Unlike Thunderbolt 1 and 2 cables, which are available in longer lengths via optical cables, Thunderbolt 3 optical cables have yet to be released (see Copper vs. Intel offers a single port (JHL7340) and double port (JHL7540) version of this host controller and a peripheral controller supporting two Thunderbolt 3 ports (JHL7440). The new peripheral controller can now act as a USB sink (compatible with regular USB-C ports). On 8 January 2018, Intel announced a product refresh (codenamed Titan Ridge) with “enhanced robustness” and support for DisplayPort 1.4. In October 2016, Apple announced the updated MacBook Pro, which features two or four Thunderbolt 3 ports depending on the model In June 2017, Apple announced new iMac models that feature two Thunderbolt 3 ports, as well as the iMac Pro, which featured four ports when released in December 2017. Support was added to Intel’s Skylake architecture chipsets, shipping during late 2015 into early 2016ĭevices with Thunderbolt 3 ports began shipping at the beginning of December 2015, including notebooks running Microsoft Windows (from Acer, Asus, Clevo, HP, Dell, Dell Alienware, Lenovo, MSI, Razer, and Sony), as well as motherboards (from Gigabyte Technology), and a 0.5 m Thunderbolt 3 passive USB-C cable (from Lintes Technology).
#INTEL THUNDERBOLT 3 MAC#
This follows previous practice, where higher-end devices such as the second-generation Mac Pro, iMac, Retina MacBook Pro, and Mac Miniuse two-port controllers while lower-end, lower-power devices such as the MacBook Air use the one-port version.
Thunderbolt 3 has limited power delivery capabilities on copper cables and no power delivery capability on optical cables. The new controller supports PCIe 3.0 and other protocols, including DisplayPort 1.2 (allowing for 4K resolutions at 60 Hz).
Intel’s Thunderbolt 3 controller (codenamed Alpine Ridge, or the new Titan Ridge) halves power consumption, and simultaneously drives two external 4K displays at 60 Hz (or a single external 4K display at 120 Hz, or a 5K display at 60 Hz when using Apple’s implementation for the late-2016 MacBook Pros) instead of just the single display previous controllers can drive. Compared to Thunderbolt 2, it doubles the bandwidth to 40 Gbit/s (5 GB/s), allowing up to 4-lane PCIe 3.0, 8-lane DisplayPort 1.2, and USB 3.1 10 Gbit/s. ] It shares USB-C connectors with USB, and can require special “active” cables for maximum performance for cable lengths over 0.5 meters (1.5 feet). Thunderbolt 3 is a hardware interface developed by Intel.