thunderbolt tech

THUNDERBOLT TECHNOLOGY

INTRODUCTION

A potential indicator of future PC architecture, Intel's new Thunderbolt is the fastest interface for mainstream computers. Following its bias toward innovation over cost, Apple is the first computer maker to adopt Thunderbolt, adding it to the newest Mac Book Pro models. Sony, another innovator of consumer products, is expected to follow suit by integrating the interface in its computers. Several peripheral vendors are developing products for Thunderbolt, and more PC makers could follow Apple's lead in 2012.

With serial data rates of up to 10Gbps, Thunderbolt supports PCI Express and Display Port concurrently on the same cable. By daisy-chaining, the interface can support up to six peripherals connected to a PC. The combination of fast data rate, concurrent protocols, and multiple devices will enable new performance levels, efficient connectivity, and new applications.

These impressive capabilities, however, have a cost. Thunderbolt requires Intel's newly introduced controller chips and active cables for the interface, and it adds cost to the computer and the peripheral, which are likely to be priced significantly higher than their USB-only counterparts. Although several vendors have announced plans to offer native Thunderbolt devices, none of these devices is available today.

Years in the making, Thunderbolt began as Thunder bolt, which was built around optical modules. By offering Thunderbolt first on copper cables, Intel accelerated the time to bring this technology to market and reduced the initial implementation cost. Later in 2011, Intel expects optical cables to become available.

Even using copper, however, Thunderbolt is faster than any other PC interconnects. USB 2.0, the leading PC interface today, operates at a fraction of Thunderbolt's rate. USB 3.0 will increase the data rate, but it will still be less than half the data rate of a Thunderbolt channel and one-quarter the rate of a full Thunderbolt port. For mainstream computers and peripherals, however, the USB 3.0 data rate is adequate and Thunderbolt's cost premium too high. Nevertheless, the new interconnect starts a journey that could well lead to the next-generation architecture for PC interfaces.

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HISTORY

Intel introduced Thunder bolt at the 2009 Intel Developer Forum (IDF), using a prototype Mac

Pro motherboard to run two 1080p video streams plus LAN and storage devices over a single 30-

meter optical cable with modified USB ends. The system was driven by a prototype PCI

Express card, with two optical buses powering four ports. At the show, Intel claimed that

Thunder bolt-equipped systems would begin to appear in 2010.

On 4 May 2010, in Brussels, Intel demonstrated a laptop with a Thunder bolt connector,

indicating that the technology had shrunk small enough to fit inside such a device, and had the

laptop send two simultaneous HD video streams down the connection, indicating that at least

some fraction of the software/firmware stacks and protocols were functional. At the same

demonstration, Intel officials said they expected hardware manufacturing to begin around the end

of 2010.

In September 2010, some early commercial prototypes from manufacturers were demonstrated

at Intel Developer Forum 2010.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Developer_Forum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Serial_Bus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_area_network


FEATURES

Provide a standard low cost interconnection

- Support for key existing protocols (USB, HDMI, PCIe…)

- Scalable bandwidth, cost, power to support broad base for 10 years +

- Support wide range of devices (handhelds, laptop, and pc)

Architecture for the next decade and more

- Single flexible cable that can carry any platform I/O.



TODAY’S CHALLENGE

Electrical I/O nearing practically limits speed & distance.

Devices getting smaller, Thinner and lighter

Too many different connectors and cables



DESCRIPTION

The thunder bolt technology is comprised of following components:

An Optical fiber cable or Copper wire

A controller

An optical module

A connector in each device

Optical cable: the data is transferred through the optical fiber cable which is made up of glass

and it is plastic coated. It also contains copper wire to power devices which are connected to it.

The optical cable is 125nm in diameter and can support data transfer up to 100 mts.



Controller: the controller chip is the main component used in Thunder bolt. It provides protocol

switching capabilities to support multiple protocols over a single cable. It also provide priority

based transfer by assigning priorities to different devices and applications used.



Optical module: The optical modules convert the electrical signals into the photons which are

transferred over the optical cable. The conversion is done using a special VCSEL (vertical cavity

surface emitting lasers). The optical module drives two optical ports.



Connector: the connectors are located at end of the optical cable, it allow fast removal and

insertion.Thunder bolt uses the smaller ports which are suitable for the laptops.



BLOCK DIAGRAM OF THUNDRBOLT



COPPER Vs. OPTICAL

Originally conceived as an optical technology, Thunderbolt switched to electrical connections to

reduce costs and to supply up to 10W of power to connected devices.

In 2009, Intel officials said the company was "working on bundling the optical fiber with copper

wire so Light Peak can be used to power devices plugged into the PC. ”In 2010, Intel said the

original intent was "to have one single connector technology" that would allow "electrical USB

3.0 […] and piggyback on USB 3.0 or 4.0 DC power."

In January 2011, Intel's David Perl mutter told Computerworld that initial Thunderbolt

implementations would be based on copper wires. "The copper came out very good, surprisingly

better than what we thought," he said.

Intel and industry partners are still developing optical Thunderbolt hardware and cables.

The optical fiber cables are to run "tens of meters" but will not supply power, at least not

initially. They are to have two 62.5-micron-wide fibers to transport an infrared signal up to 100

meters (330 ft.).The conversion of electrical signal to optical will be embedded into the cable

itself, allowing the current Display Port socket to be future compatible, but eventually Intel

hopes for a purely optical transceiver assembly embedded in the PC.



TECHNOLOGY

Intel's Thunderbolt controllers interconnect a PC and other devices, transmitting and receiving

packetized traffic for both PCIe and Display Port protocols. Thunderbolt technology works on

data streams in both directions, at the same time, so users get the benefit of full bandwidth in

both directions, over a single cable. With the two independent channels, a full 10 Gbps of

bandwidth can be provided for the first device, as well as additional downstream devices.

And all Thunderbolt devices share a common connector, allowing users to daisy chain devices

one after another with interoperable cables.



TECHNOLOGY FOR USERS:

Thunderbolt technology enables using the thinnest and lightest laptops and connecting to the extra power and performance of other devices when needed, using a single cable. Adding new performance devices is simple and easy—just plug and play—making Thunderbolt technology powerful and flexible.

Thunderbolt technology was specifically designed with professional audio and video applications in mind, where the inherently low latency and highly accurate time synchronization features play a crucial role.

Enthusiast–level performance expansion, now with a laptop

With Thunderbolt enabled products, video editing and sharing using Intel® Quick Sync Video technology is even faster and easier.

Data transfers for backup, sharing, and editing are tremendously accelerated using Thunderbolt products, significantly reducing times to complete these tasks.

And Thunderbolt enabled products are compatible with existing DisplayPort devices so you don’t have to go buy a new display to take advantage of a Thunderbolt technology enabled computer



TECHNOLOGY FOR PC INDUSTRY

By tapping into the performance and protocols delivered over Thunderbolt technology, designers are free to innovate new PC products and configurations, no longer constrained to the boundaries of the chassis walls. Thunderbolt technology enables engineers to:

Design standalone performance expansion technologies commonly used in desktops and workstations, using existing native device drivers and interconnected by a single cable.

Introduce thinner and lighter laptops, expandable through Thunderbolt technology and its miniature connector designed for mobile applications, without sacrificing I/O performance.

Extend to reach other I/O technologies by using adapters that use widely available PCI Express controllers. It's simple to create a Gigabit Ethernet, or FireWire, or eSATA adapters using existing device PCI Express drivers.

Thunderbolt products require a controller chip supplied by Intel and a small connector that would be included in platforms supporting this technology. The Thunderbolt controller chip provides protocol switching capabilities to support the two protocols over a single cable. Intel is making its controller chip available to the industry, and is working with other component manufacturers to deliver the Thunderbolt connectors and cables.



HOW IT WORKS

Thunderbolt consists of Intel’s thunderbolt controller chip and a connecting cord between two

devices. Intel’s brand new Thunderbolt controller chip is capable of piping two data

streams simultaneously, in both directions, over a cable at speeds of up to 10Gigabits per second.

It is primarily using PCI Express x4 for data communication and Display Port technology for

video output.

According to Intel, the Thunderbolt controller chip is hardware-agnostic and doesn’t require an

Intel processor or chipset to use. The controller acts like a router which switches rapidly between

the two bi-directional channels of data.



SPEED COMPARISON



SECURITY

Since thunder bolt extends the PCI Express bus, which is the main expansion bus in current

systems, it allows very low-level access to the system. PCI devices need to have unlimited access

to memory, and may thus compromise security. The same is true about other expansion bus

standards such as PC Card, Express Card and FireWire.

MARKET INTRODUCTION



It was long rumored that the early-2011 MacBook Pro update would include some sort of new

data port, and most of the speculation suggested it would be Light Peak. At the time, there were

no details on the physical implementation, and mock-ups appeared showing a system similar to

the earlier Intel demos using a combined USB/Light Peak port. Shortly before the release of the

new machines, the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) announced they would not allow this,

stating that USB was not open to modification in this way.

In spite of these comments and speculation, the introduction came as a major surprise when it

was revealed that the port was based on Display Port, not USB. As the system was described,

Intel's solution to the display connection problem became clear: Thunderbolt controllers fold

data from existing Display Port systems with data from the PCI Express port into a single cable.

Older displays, using Display Port 1.1 or earlier, have to be located at the end of a Thunderbolt

device chain, but newer displays can be placed anywhere along the line. Thunderbolt devices can

go anywhere on the chain. In this respect, Thunderbolt shares a relationship with the

older ACCESS. Bus system, which used the display connector to support a low-speed bus.

Apple published technical details explaining that 6 daisy-chained peripherals are supported per

Thunderbolt port, and that the Display should lie at the end of the chain.

In February 2011, Apple introduced its new line of MacBook Pro laptop computers and

announced the technology's commercial name would be Thunderbolt, with these machines being

the first to feature the new I/O technology.

In May 2011, Apple announced a new line of iMacs that include the Thunderbolt interface.


SONYVaio Z21 (N/A)

APPLE

MacBook Pro (February 24, 2011)

iMac (May 3, 2011)

MacBook Air (July 20, 2011)

Mac mini (July 20, 2011)

Mac Pro (N/A)


The Thunderbolt port on the new Macs is in the same location relative to other ports and

maintains the same physical dimensions and pin out as the legacy Display Port connector. The

primary visual differentiation on Thunderbolt equipped Macs is a Thunderbolt symbol instead of

a Display Port symbol next to the port opening.

Apple's legacy Display Port standard is partially compatible with Thunderbolt, as the two share a

physically compatible Mini Display Port connector. The Target Display mode on iMacs requires

a Thunderbolt cable to accept a video-in signal from another Thunderbolt-capable

computer. Mini Display Port monitors function correctly as an external monitor without an

adaptor if they are either the only or the last device in the Thunderbolt device chain.

Intel announced that a developer kit would be released in the second quarter of 2011, while

manufacturers of hardware development equipment have indicated they will add support for the

testing and development of Thunderbolt devices. The developer kit was not yet available as of 21

July 2011, with Intel saying that interested parties needed to keep checking later.

THUNDERBOLT-READY DEVICES



Soon you’ll be able to connect to a host of Thunderbolt-enabled devices.Here are just a few of the first:

Display

Apple Thunderbolt Display

Storage

Promise Pegasus R4 and Pegasus R6 LaCie Little Big Disk Sonnet Fusion RAID

Video Capture

Blackmagic UltraStudio 3D Matrox MX02

Adapters

Promise SAN Link Fiber Channel adapter Sonnet Allegro FireWire 800 adapter Sonnet Presto Gigabit Ethernet adapter

PRODUCTION HISTORY



Designer:Intel & Apple

Manufacturer: Various

Produced: 2011 February-Present

GENERAL SPECIFICATION



Length: 3 meter copper wire

Width: 8.3mm

Height: 5.4mm

Hot Pluggable: Yes

Daisy Chain: Yes, up to 7 devices

External: Yes

Connector: Mini Display Port

DATA SPECIFICATION

Data Signal: Yes

Bitrate: 10Gbit/s PCIe & Display Port(bi-directional)

Protocol: PCI Express, Display Port v1.1a

COMPARISON



PCIs:

Thunderbolt is equivalent to other PCI expansion method. These connection methods do not allow for transfer of video signals, but they do allow for connection of a GPU. Such expansion technologies allow for connection of expansion chassis and backplanes such as for usage of extended number of PCI, PCIe, PCI-X, compact PCI, mini-PCI(e) slots. Any conventional PCI devices and drivers can be used, like SATA, SCSI, PS/2, serial, parallel, SD, Fire wire, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, GPU, Video input, TV input, Audio,etc. Unlike USB, to redirect PCI to other (virtual) machines, device specific solutions are required.

Wireless Network

How does Light Peak compare to the latest technologies? The slowest is wireless. For example, Wireless N (802.11n) can reach 160 Mb/s in the real world. Light Peak is about 60 times faster. Faster wireless standards will come out, but nothing even close to what a good cable can provide.

Ethernet

Moving on to other ethernet type connections, Apple first used Gigabit Ethernet on the "Mystic" Power Mac G4 in 2000. It gives a full 1 Gb/s. The fastest ethernet on the market is 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GBase-T), and 100 Gigabit Ethernet is under development. You won't find 10G ethernet on many computers. The standard also makes use of fiber optic cable to achieve these transfer rates.

USB 3.0:

The latest USB 3.0 connectors are starting to make an appearance. We see that at best it will be only half the speed of Light Peak. USB 3.0 is rated at 4.8 Gb/s. Of course, theoretical and actual are two different things. In the past USB was unable to deliver more than about two-thirds of theoretical speed.



FireWire:

FireWire was an important competitor to USB, but it has been losing popularity. Still, the FireWire standard is still progressing. FireWire S3200 is planned to reach 3.2 Gb/s. That keeps it comparable to USB 3.0, but still much slower than Light Peak. I doubt we'll see many devices that use it.

Hard Drives SATA 6 Gb/s:

Hard drives need to be speedy, and a new SATA protocol was recently released, SATA 6 Gb/s. As the name implies, it can go 6 Gb/s. The nice thing with this protocol is it remains compatible with older systems and hard drives. You do need to have the right motherboard to take advantage of the latest speed increase.

HDMI and Display Port:

The newest video protocols, HDMI and Display Port, are both ready to transfer HD video content or huge blocks of data if all the wires are used together. HDMI version 1.3 and higher will transfer at 10.2 Gb/s, while Display Port can go up to 10.8 Gb/s. These are slightly better than Light Peak, but they are mostly designed for video. No one is pushing the data transfer rates of these protocols.



ADVANTAGES

1. The Thunder Bolt optical modules are physically much smaller than those of telecom grade.

2. The optical modules are designed to be much lower cost and higher performance.

3. Thunder Bolt can send and receive data at 10 billion bits per second.

4. The thin optical fiber will enable

5. Thunder Bolt to transfer data over very thin, flexible cables.

6. Unlike electrical cables, Thunder Bolt do not faces the problem of EMI, thus can be used up to 100m.

7. Thunder Bolt also has the ability to run multiple protocols simultaneously over a single cable, enabling the technology to connect devices such as docking stations, displays, disk drives, and more. A simple analogy is it is like loading up many cars onto a high-speed bullet train.

8. The data transfer is bidirectional in nature thus enabling devices to transfer simultaneously.

9. Quality of service implementation

10. No Operating System (OS) changes required.

11. It also supports another feature known as ³Hot-swapping´ which means the PC needs not be shut down and restarted to attach or remove a peripheral.

12. Economies of scale from a single optical solution

13. Enables I/O performance for the next generation Allows for balanced platform, with

external I/O keeping up with most platform interconnects.

14. Up to 100 meters on an optical-only cable. Each fiber is only 125 microns wide, the

width of a human hair.

15. Supports multiple existing I/O protocols over a single cable and smooth transition for today’s existing electrical I/O protocols.



LIMITATION

Utilization of bandwidth

Potentially expensive



APPLICATIONS

Professional video and audio:

In this domain. Apart from its low latency, its massive bandwidth is very important here,

considering how large especially video files are.

Fast Computer networking:

Thunderbolt can do master-to-master networking.

Target disk mode:

Fire wire Macs can be booted into a special mode and used like an external hard drive.

Thunderbolt can do the same.

Docking stations:

Because Thunderbolt can transport many protocols (audio, video, etc.) at the same time, I

expect it to get used for future docking stations. It won’t carry enough power for laptops,

but tablets such as the iPad will be fine.

Less cable between monitor and desktop computer:

The monitor could have USB ports for keyboard and mouse and the connected to the

desktop chassis via Thunderbolt and power. Thunderbolt would take care of video, audio,

and USB.

Mobile devices:

The small ports are great for mobile computing. A single port for several tasks is also

useful.



FUTURE CLIENT USAGE MODELS

• Fast external storage

• SSD or HDD arrays transferring at 10Gbs and faster

• Advanced docking

• High-performance docks.

• PC-to-PC high-speed connection.

• Transfer files, PC migration, etc.

• Simplified home connectivity

• Connect multiple PCs and portable devices.

CABLES AND PORTS



CONCLUSION

CONCLUSION



Thunder bolt technology gives a great responsiveness with high speed data and display transfers

in each direction at the same time. With a single cable, connecting a PC to multiple devices is

simple. Thunder bolt give incredible flexibility. It is next generation interconnect technology

which can overcome the current performance limitations. This technology will enable us using

the thinnest and lightest laptops and connecting to the extra power and performance of other

devices when needed using a single cable.

Thunder Bolt is a high-speed, multi-protocol interconnect for innovative and emerging client

usage models, that complements other existing interconnects. Thunder Bolt is the name for a

new high-speed optical cable technology designed to connect electronic devices to each other.

Thunder Bolt delivers high bandwidth starting at 10Gb/s with the potential ability to scale to

100Gb/s over the next decade. At 10Gb/s, we can transfer a full-length Blu-Ray movie in less

than 30 seconds.

REFERENCE



1) "Thunderbolt™ Technology". Intel. Retrieved June 28, 2011.

2) "Light Peak: Overview". Intel. Retrieved June 29, 2011.

3) "White Paper: The 50G Silicon Photonics Link". Intel. Retrieved June 29, 2011.

4) "Thunderbolt: Next-Generation high-speed I/O technology". Apple. February 24,

2011. Retrieved February 25, 2011.

5) "White Paper: The 50G Silicon Photonics Link". Intel. Retrieved June 29, 2011.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Corporation

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