Monica Chen, Taipei; Joseph Tsai

 

Intel has recently notified its partners that the company will fully release its Thunderbolt technology in April of 2012 with several first-tier PC players already preparing to launch Thunderbolt-supported motherboards, notebooks and desktop PCs, according to sources from PC players.

To speed up the standardization of Thunderbolt, Intel is cooperating with Apple and Apple is the sole vendor currently to have PC products featuring Thunderbolt technology. As demand for the technology has seen obvious growth, Intel is ready to release the technology for public use.

Due to Thunderbolt chip costs being more than US$20 and the solution running a conflict with USB 3.0 in terms of next-generation data transmission technology, the Thunderbolt did not receive strong attention from the IT industry when announced, but as Apple has largely adopted the technology into its products such as monitor, MacBook Pro, iMac, MacBook Air and MacBook Mini, it has strongly boosted demand.

With the cost for adopting Thunderbolt technology expected to drop in the second half of 2012, the technology should be standardized gradually in the future, the sources noted.

Currently Sony is expected to adopt Thunderbolt technology into its product lines with players such as Asustek Computer also expected to adopt the technology into their high-end notebook products. Gigabyte Technology, which has been aggressively adopting new transmission technology into its product line, is also expected to launch Thunderbolt-featured motherboard in April of 2012 to compete against Asustek and ASRock.