Thunderbolt 5 Speed ​​could double the leaked photos of its predecessor

When Intel released Love at first sight 4 Last year, as the successor to Thunderbolt 3, many people were confused and disappointed to realize that the update offered the same 40 Gbps of bandwidth as its predecessor. Now Intel is stepping up with Thunderbolt 5, a photo prematurely tweeted by a company executive, and Mac users could soon enjoy bandwidths of up to 80 Gbps.

On Sunday, AnandTech Gregory Bryant, executive vice president and general manager of Intel’s customer IT group, surprised, tweeting and deleting a photo with a sign touting “80G PHY technology” clearly visible in the background. For context, Bryant tweeted about his trip to visit Intel’s R&D facilities in Israel all week, and the deleted photo originally accompanied other snaps from his tour in a validation lab and meetings with the team abroad.

While Thunderbolt 5’s exact bandwidth is still unconfirmed, the fact that the tweet was deleted so quickly definitely suggests that the information was posted accidentally. Either way, the speed increase wouldn’t necessarily come as a surprise: In March, Intel’s I / O Strategy Director in the Client Connectivity division, Ben Hacker, said Tom’s Hardware Show that a bandwidth roughly double the speed of Thunderbolt 4 could be imminent.

“What I think we’re pretty confident about is for at least one more speed bump somewhere, and who knows exactly what it is, but call it pretty much a doubling,” Hacker said.

If the leaked photo is to be believed – no promise – Thunderbolt 5 will feature 80G USB in order to “support the existing USB-C ecosystem,” meaning Intel is stepping up its efforts to keep its technology relevant for users who still depend on the standard. USB-C connections. An early user of Thunderbolt, Apple long included standalone ports in its Macs before updating the standard to use USB-C connectors.