Engadget: So what's this Thunderbolt stuff, and why is it in your new MacBook Pro? Intel just broke it down for us, and now we'll do the same for you. Simply put, Thunderbolt's a familiar-looking port, a brand-new chip, and a cord, which allows devices to pipe two data streams simultaneously -- in both directions -- over a single cable at up to 10 gigabits per second to start, primarily using PCI Express x4 for data and DisplayPort for video.
The Thunderbolt 4 connection offers some fantastic improvements when compared to the previous generation of Thunderbolt 3.
Thunderbolt is becoming USB4?
For the last few years, Intel and Apple have worked to create an ecosystem around Intel’s Thunderbolt interface, formerly known as Light Peak. The first generation Thunderbolt interface offered four independent lanes at 10Gbps down a single cable, while Thunderbolt 2 allowed those lanes to be combined into two 20Gbps channels.
