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Activity Forums Creative Community Conversations Thunderbolt 3 coming- but probably not for a while.

  • Thunderbolt 3 coming- but probably not for a while.

    Posted by Marcus Moore on April 22, 2014 at 4:26 am

    https://www.macrumors.com/2014/04/21/thunderbolt-third-generation-details/

    The highlights-

    • 40Gb/s
    • lower power consumption
    • new connector, but backward comparable via adaptors.
    • PCIe g3 support.

    Don’t get too excited (or concerned that your new MacPro is already obsolete); the processors referenced in the article put the release of TB3 at probably late 2015 or early 2016. I think that about the same revision time as TB1 to TB2.

    At 40Gb/s, I still don’t think TB3 can handle all cards that would previously have used traditional PCIe slots. 16-lane cards are probably still out. But it is getting closer.

    Walter Soyka replied 12 years ago 4 Members · 3 Replies
  • 3 Replies
  • Andrew Kimery

    April 22, 2014 at 5:24 am

    A new Thunderbolt, a new connector yet still no optical. If this rumor holds true it will mean three iterations of ThB in 6 years. Kinda makin’ me feel like you rushed this to market Apple…

  • Erik Lindahl

    April 22, 2014 at 10:44 am

    [Andrew Kimery] “A new Thunderbolt, a new connector yet still no optical. If this rumor holds true it will mean three iterations of ThB in 6 years. Kinda makin’ me feel like you rushed this to market Apple…”
    You mean Intel? I don’t see how having 10 Gbit or 20 Gbit connectors on your iMac, MacMini and MacBook Pro can be a bad things during the revisions of Thunderbolt.

    – TB1 and TB2 har 100% identical aside from the fact TB2 will give you in the realm of 70% better throughput and 4K support.
    – TB3 is 100% compatible with TB1 and TB2 and if the above goes again, we’ll see storage reaching 2250 – 2500 MB/s, dual 4K screen support (or 1 4K screen and 1 storage device at the same speed as TB2 from one port) as well as 100W power that can probably drive a lot of external devices like video interfaces and simpler storage solutions.

    I don’t see a huge problem. The only thing that will be a head-ache are the two connectors. And I think TB3 will at the earliest come out first quarter 2015, most likely is somewhere around third quarter 2015. If we’re “unlucky” we’re talking spring 2016 if TB3 is tied to the release of “Skylake” seeing “Broadwell” has been delayed.

  • Walter Soyka

    April 22, 2014 at 1:34 pm

    [Marcus Moore] “At 40Gb/s, I still don’t think TB3 can handle all cards that would previously have used traditional PCIe slots. 16-lane cards are probably still out. But it is getting closer.”

    We shouldn’t forget that PCIe is still be actively developed, and PCIe 4.0 will also be doubling speeds sometime in 2015:

    https://www.pcisig.com/news_room/faqs/FAQ_PCI_Express_4.0/

    But TB3 will be plenty fast for lots of use cases!

    Walter Soyka
    Principal & Designer at Keen Live
    Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
    RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
    Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

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