Intel has been leaking Thunderbolt 5 speeds for some time now, and on Tuesday, they finally released a list of the fastest Thunderbolt 5 devices. The top three devices are the Apple MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, the Dell Inspirion xPS M5, and the HP Spectre x360. The MacBook Pro with Touch Bar is listed as having a speed of up to 10 Gbps. The Inspirion xPS M5 is next with a speed of up to 8 Gbps, while the HP Spectre x360 is listed as having a speed of up to 6 Gbps. These speeds are lower than what we have seen from other Thunderbolt 5 devices such as the Dell Inspirion xPS M5 and Apple MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, which have speeds of 10 Gbps and 8 Gbps, respectively. We are not sure if these speeds are real or if they were just leaked by Intel. We will update this article when we hear more information about these speeds.
What Did Intel Accidently Reveal?
The tweet, which was since deleted and reuploaded without the offending image, shows the text “80G PHY Technology” and “USB 80G is targeted to support the existing USB-C ecosystem.” The first line is the bandwidth mentioned above increase. The second line indicates that Intel is aiming to keep the USB-C connector with higher bandwidth.
This isn’t the first time we’ve heard about Thunderbolt 5 offering double the bandwidth of its predecessor. Intel’s director of I/O strategy in the Client Connectivity Division, Ben Hacker, told The Tom’s Hardware Show that double the bandwidth was achievable.
There’s also a third visible line of text that says, “The PHY will be based on novel PAM-3 modulation technology.” That’s where things get complicated, but if you’re interested in the details, Anandtech has all the technical information, including graphs and charts.
But here’s what it means for you: It’s twice as fast. This is partly because PAM-3 can carry a 3-bit data signal, which is quicker than traditional NRZ connections that carry a single bit.
When Will We See Thunderbolt 5?
Unfortunately, we have no idea at this time. Intel is working on something here that they didn’t want public, or the Tweet would not have been deleted after it was posted. If Thunderbolt can indeed support 80 Gbps connections, then it could be a game-changer in terms of bandwidth.
We’ll have to wait and see when Intel plans to implement the new technology and whether it’ll meet the numbers the company is currently targeting, but it all sounds fascinating.
