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The Thunderbolt Saga continues. According to a press release by ASUS and a Techpowerup article, Thunderbolt 2.0 cards and "Thunderbolt-Ready" motherboards will begin shipping this December (2013). The first motherboard to enjoy the "Thunderbolt-Ready" moniker will be the ASUS Z87 Pro.
This is the second time Intel has certified PCIe adapters for motherboards with Thunderbolt technology. Last year ASUS Z77 Pro boards shipped with Thunderbolt 1.0 PCIe capability, yet the implementation was not widely adopted.
The issue remains that you need to purchase alot of extras. In addition to a Thunderbolt device, you also need a relatively expensive Thunderbolt cable and a Thunderbolt PCIe Card (branded ThunderboltEX II by ASUS). And your motherboard would need to have both a GPIO (general purpose I/O) slot and a DisplayPort to connect to the card, as well as an available PCIe slot.
The 2013 Mac Pro has 6 available Thunderbolt 2.0 slots- this would bring future motherboards up to that spec. It's unclear whether x79 Socket 2011 boards will ever get these types of upgrades- since they don't have any integrated graphics through the CPU. We will have to wait and see. As for the future of Thunderbolt technology- it's going to take wide public adoption to really take hold. It's way more flexible than other connectivity options, however the cost may ultimately marginalize it.
Source:
http://www.techpowerup.com/194538/i...ady-upgrade-program-for-motherboards-pcs.html
This is the second time Intel has certified PCIe adapters for motherboards with Thunderbolt technology. Last year ASUS Z77 Pro boards shipped with Thunderbolt 1.0 PCIe capability, yet the implementation was not widely adopted.
The issue remains that you need to purchase alot of extras. In addition to a Thunderbolt device, you also need a relatively expensive Thunderbolt cable and a Thunderbolt PCIe Card (branded ThunderboltEX II by ASUS). And your motherboard would need to have both a GPIO (general purpose I/O) slot and a DisplayPort to connect to the card, as well as an available PCIe slot.
The 2013 Mac Pro has 6 available Thunderbolt 2.0 slots- this would bring future motherboards up to that spec. It's unclear whether x79 Socket 2011 boards will ever get these types of upgrades- since they don't have any integrated graphics through the CPU. We will have to wait and see. As for the future of Thunderbolt technology- it's going to take wide public adoption to really take hold. It's way more flexible than other connectivity options, however the cost may ultimately marginalize it.
Source:
http://www.techpowerup.com/194538/i...ady-upgrade-program-for-motherboards-pcs.html