Intel's Thunderbolt gets off the ground

From InfoWorld: Intel's Thunderbolt interconnect technology, formerly called Light Peak, has emerged from the company's lab and will soon find its way into product, including Apple's new line of MacBook Pro laptops, Intel said Thursday.

First announced in 2009, Intel's Thunderbolt technology will transfer data between host devices and external devices at speeds of up to 10Gbps, Intel said on its website. Thunderbolt will be able to transfer a full-length high-definition movie from an external storage device to a PC in less than 30 seconds.

Apple will be the first to offer Thunderbolt technology in its new line of MacBook Pro computers, also announced Thursday, and other companies such as LaCie and Western Digital will offer products based on the technology in the future.

The technology was specially designed for audio and video enthusiasts, Intel said. Users can get real-time processing by synchronizing high-bandwidth audio and video between PCs and other devices, cutting the lag time that exists with other technologies.

Contrary to what Intel said when the company first talked about Thunderbolt in 2009, it will not use light to provide high-bandwidth data transfers between devices, an Intel spokeswoman said in an email, without providing further detail.

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