A few weeks after USB4 version 2.0 was announced, Intel has returned fire with its own 80Gbps I/O standard, what it’s calling “the next generation of Thunderbolt” for docking stations and other devices.
What will likely be called Thunderbolt 5 has its own quirk: In certain situations, specifically transmitting high-definition video, the available channels can be reallocated to allow from 80Gbps to up to 120Gbps of available bandwidth. But Intel isn’t revealing when the next-gen Thunderbolt technology will roll out, or what it will be officially called.
