Intel Adds Networking Emulation To Thunderbolt For 10GbE Speeds

It's tough to say when, or if, the heralded USB port will ever be truly replaced in the eyes of the masses. But Thunderbolt is sure working towards becoming a great secondary option, if not an outright replacement in time. At this year's NAB Show in Las Vegas, Intel announced Thunderbolt 2. It's the latest edition of the high-speed transfer protocol, with a bandwidth boost up to 20Gbps.

Moreover, there's the addition of Thunderbolt Networking, which effectively acts as a crossover cable in order to allow two computers to directly connect and share information over a high-speed superhighway. Thunderbolt Networking, emulating an Ethernet connection environment, provides 10GbE throughput between two computers. OS X Mavericks already supports it, and a PC driver will be made available "soon" in order to link two PCs together or a PC to a Mac.


The industry-wide support for Thunderbolt 2 is impressive. That's the kind of progress that'll be necessary for it to succeed in the long run, and get in front of more consumer eyes.