Intel manager leaks first details about the new standard
Intel manager Gregory Bryant inadvertently posted information about a Thunderbolt 5 proposal during a tour of his company’s research facilities in Israel, and it reads spectacularly.
Bryant reacted quickly – but not quickly enough. The Intel manager posted the following tweet on Sunday. In it, he praised the interesting insights that he was already able to get in the Intel laboratories in Israel – Bryant highlighted one innovation in Thunderbolt in particular
After the tweet was initially posted with four photos, Bryant quickly deleted it and posted it again – this time with only three photos. The fourth photo was the website Anandtech however, secure and take a closer look.
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Thunderbolt 5 could work twice as fast as its predecessor
It turned out that Intel is apparently working on a standard that will be able to transfer 80 gigabits per second via USB-C instead of the previous maximum of 40 gigabits per second. It is very likely to be Thunderbolt 5. Intel refers to the project internally as “80G PHY Technology”, as can be seen from the photo that Bryant deleted.
This poster on the wall is betraying a secret. (Photo: Gregory Bryant / Anandtech)
That can hardly be interpreted otherwise than that the manufacturer is working on a physical layer (PHY) for 80 gigabit per second connections and thus on no less than doubling the previous Thunderbolt bandwidth.
Small poster provides great insights
If you take a closer look, you can read in the second line of the poster in the photo that “USB 80G aims to support the existing USB-C ecosystem”. The doubling of the bandwidth would therefore take place without changing the connection.
This is apparently to be achieved through a new transmission technology that uses the pulse amplitude modulation PAM-3, as the poster reveals. Put simply, PAM-3 ensures that three bits can be transmitted in two cycles. Pulse amplitude modulation is also used in modern graphics cards, Ethernet devices and future PCI interfaces.
Test chip already in use
The Intel researchers have also already developed a corresponding N6 chip. A prototype should already be running in the laboratory and show promising results. Note N6 should mean that it is a chip that could be produced by the contract manufacturer TSMC in a six nanometer production width.
Bryant’s quick response does not mean that Thunderbolt 5 is imminent. After all, Thunderbolt 4 was only announced in January 2020, five years after its predecessor Thunderbolt 3.
