2013: The Year of Thunderbolt?

The new Thunderbolt (codename Light Peak) data cable standard comes in two forms: copper wire and optical, with the latter offering higher performance. DigiTimes’ sources have indicated that the Thunderbolt standard is likely to become mainstream in 2013 in PCs and related products such as external hard disc drives once the standard has shifted from its current copper implementation to optical, which also offers longer cable lengths. Thunderbolt will be introduced to PCs in motherboards designed for Intel’s upcoming Ivy Bridge CPUs, which will use the optical version. These will be made by the likes of Asustek, Lenovo and several other manufacturers.
Thunderbolt technology was developed by Intel with input from Apple, who currently uses Thunderbolt in their products.