Intel first revealed Thunderbolt 4 during its CES 2020 presentation earlier this year. The company didn’t share any major details for Thunderbolt 4 at the event. But today, it has officially revealed everything there is to know about this next-gen port that will come baked into most laptops in the following years.
In addition, Intel has doubled the minimum video and data requirements with this new port. It now supports up to two 4K displays or a single 8K display. The port supports the same protocols, including USB 2.0, USB 3.2, USB 4, DisplayPort, and PCIe (PCI Express), like its predecessor. It also requires a minimum data transfer rate of 32Gbps via PCIe and 3,000Mbps for storage transfer speeds.
As for the accessory side of things, “Thunderbolt 4 will offer docks with up to four Thunderbolt ports and universal cables up to 2 meters in length.” This will include one upstream and three downstream ports and the 40Gbps bandwidth will be split among connected accessories using the new Thunderbolt 4 controller 8000 series.
