THUNDERBOLT I/O INTERFACE

1

THUNDERBOLT

B.Tech Colloquium Report

Submitted by

Mr. RAGHAV AGGARWAL

(2010EEC30)

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the degree

of

BACHLEOR OF TECHNOLOGY

IN

ELECTRONICS & COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING

At

SCHOOL OF ELECTRONICS AND COMMUNICATION

ENGINEERING

SHRI MATA VAISHNO DEVI UNIVERSITY

KATRA

November- 2013

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Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University

School of Electronics and Communication Engineering

Student Declaration

I hereby certify that the Colloquium Report entitled Thunderbolt, submitted in the partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of Bachelor of Technology in Electronics and Communication Engineering and to the School of Electronics and Communication Engineering of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Katra, J&K is an authentic record of my own study carried out during a period Aug-Nov 2013

The matter presented in this report has not been submitted by me for the award of any other degree elsewhere. The content of the report does not violate any copyright and due credit is given in to the source of information if any.

Raghav Aggarwal 2010EEC30 SMVDU Campus

25thNov, 2013

Certificate

This is to certify that the above statement made by the candidate is correct to the best of my knowledge.

SMVDU Campus

Director School of ECE25thNov, 2013

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ABSTRACT

Thunderbolt (codenamed Light Peak) is a hardware interface that allows for the connection

of external peripherals to a computer with the bandwidth of 10Gbps per channel (with 2

channel). It uses the same connector as Mini DisplayPort (MDP)n Thunderbolt was developed by Intel. The interface is originally intended to run exclusively on an optical physical Layer using components and flexible optical fiber. However, it was found that Conventional copper wiring could furnish the desired Thunderbolt bandwidth per channel at lower cost.

Thunderbolt outclass the nearest rival USB 3.0 in the term of speed by large difference with its 10Gbps speed as compare to 5Gbps of counterpart. Intel promised to launch Thunderbolt

2 by 2014 which will support 20Gbps

Thunderbolt being an expensive technology, most of the key players of the market taking

time to launch thunderbolt products. But still there be a number of products will be out by

end of 2014

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER NO.

TITLE

PAGE NO.

CERTIFICATE

2

ABSTRACT

3

1.

INTRODUCTION

5

1.1 What is Thunderbolt?

1.2 Who developed it and why?

1.3 Commercial Launch

1.4 Cost

2.

TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW

6

2.1

Different Technical Aspects

2.1.1

Key features

7

2.1.2

General specifications

2.1.3

Rethinking I/O

8

2.1.4

Connector Pin Diagram

9

2.1.5

Copper vs. Optical

2.1.6

Peripherals Devices

10

2.1.7

Security

2.2.

Protocol Architecture

11

2.2.1 P.A continuation

12

2.3

Controller Architecture

13

2.4

Thunderbolt Technology Possibilities

14

3.

Early Version of Thunderbolt

15

3.1 Different Controllers

3.2 Journey of Thunderbolt

4.

Thunderbolt vs. Other existing I/O interface

16

4.1 Thunderbolt vs. USB 3.0

5.

Future: Thunderbolt 2

17

5.1 High Performance Display

5.2 No project is too massive

Conclusion

18

Appendices

19

References

21

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1. INTRODUCTION

Thunderbolt Technology: The Fastest Connection to your PC

1.1 What is Thunderbolt Technology?

Thunderbolt Technology is a transformational high speed, dual core protocol I/O protocol which provides unmatched excellent performance over current I/O technologies which are available in the market with 10Gbps bi-directional transfer speed. It provides flexibility and simplicity by supporting both data (PCI express) and video (DisplayPort) on a single cable connection that can daisy-chain up to six devices. Thunderbolt technology enables flexible and innovative system designs and is ideal for thin profile systems and devices such as Ultra books.

1.2 Who developed it and why?

Thunderbolt is developed by Intel partners and at Intel's Silicon Photonics lab. As the technology advances, every users want workstation performance but demand an Ultra book form factor. So which leads to need of very fast I/O interface which can transfer data at lightning speed but at same time being compact. Even majority of users dont care about cost factor. The Intel which is one of biggest hardware company takes innovative to develop such an interface which can meet the need of next generation of I/O data transfer and came up with the thunderbolt technology which they codename it as light Peak. With this Thunderbolt technology it is now possible to enable the thinnest and lightest laptops can connected over a single cable to high performance storage, external media drives, multiple

HD displays, HD media and editing systems as well as legacy I/O hubs and devices

1.3 Commercial launch:

Thunderbolt I/O interface was launched by Apple in 2011 using the Apple-developed connector as Mini DisplayPort, which is electrically identical to DisplayPort, but uses a smaller, non-locking connector. Though the Thunderbolt trademark was registered by Apple, full rights belong to Intel which subsequently led to the transfer of the registration from Apple to Intel. The other companies are planning to launch their thunderbolt compactable devices by the end of 2013 or in early 2014

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1.4 Why is it so expensive?

The Thunderbolt interface is very costly as compare to other I/O interface. Thunderbolt requires active cables, which is why they're so expensive (in the $50 range). Each cable end sports two tiny, low power transceiver chips that are responsible for boosting the signal passing through to enable 10 Gb/s data rates over runs as long as three meters. . Thunderbolt being the most innovative I/O interface it gradually making its market despite being expensive

2. Technology Overview

2.1 Different Technical Aspects:

Thunderbolt technology dramatically increases the data transfer rate enabling faster backup, editing and file sharing, significantly reducing the time to complete key tasks. Thunderbolt technology was specifically designed with inherently low latency and highly accurate time synchronization capabilities. These features enable extremely accurate audio and video creation, playback that no other standard interconnect technology can match

Originally, Thunderbolt was going to be enabled using an optical physical layer and optical fiber cabling. But Intel discovered that it could achieve its 10 Gbps per channel at a lower cost using copper wiring. Copper cabling delivers up to 10 W of power to attached devices. When optical cables do emerge, attached devices will require their own power supplies.

The interface shares certain capabilities with other technologies. For example, it supports hot-plugging. And, like FireWire, it is designed to work in daisy chains. Machines that come armed with Thunderbolt will either include one or two ports, each supporting up to seven chained devices, two of which can be DisplayPort-enabled monitors.

Five devices and two Thunderbolt-based displays

Six devices and one Thunderbolt-based display

Six devices and one display via mini-DisplayPort adapter

Five devices, one Thunderbolt-based display, and one display via mini-DisplayPort adapter

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2.1.1 Key Features:

10Gbps bi-directional, dual channel data transfer

Data & Video on single cable with Dual-protocol (PCI Express and DisplayPort)

Compatible with existing DisplayPort devices

Low latency with highly accurate time synchronization

Uses native PCIe and DisplayPort protocol software drivers

Power over cable for bus-powered devices (electrical cables only)

2.1.2 General Specifications:

Parameters

Specific values

Length

3 metres (9.8 ft) (copper) max

100 metres (330 ft) (optical) max

Width

7.4 mm male (8.3 mm female)

Height

4.5 mm male (5.4 mm female)

Hot Pluggable

Yes

Daisy Chain

Yes, up to 6 devices

Audio/Video signal

Via DisplayPort Protocol

Pins

20

Connectors

Mini-display Port

Max Voltage

18V (bus power)

Max Current

550mA (9.9 W max)

Bit Rate

10 Gbps per channel (20 Gbps in total)

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2.1.3. Rethinking I/O:

As every generation of information technology progresses, I/O technologies evolve to provide higher bandwidth for getting data into and out of computers. At its simplest, two discrete types of I/O have resulted display (with formatted video and audio components), and data. Traditional approaches to this evolution have been to make an existing technology faster. Thunderbolt technology combines the next step in higher Performance with the innovation of mapping two of the most fundamental I/O protocols at the heart of computing (PCI Express and DisplayPort), onto a single highly efficient meta protocol, transmitting them over a single cable, and managing the traffic routing (supporting daisy chaining and hot-plugging devices) with intelligent hardware controllers. The choice of PCI Express was clear, providing for off-the-shelf controller use to attach to nearly any technology imaginable, and the choice of DisplayPort was equally clear for meeting the needs of the PC industry with capabilities like support for multiple HD displays, and support for up to 8 channels of high-definition audio

Figure 1. Thunderbolt cable (technology) expands thin and light laptop to a higher resolution display and high performance storage in a simple daisy-chain manner

Some users need workstation performance but demand an Ultrabook form factor. With Thunderbolt technology it is now possible to enable the thinnest and lightest laptops connected over a single cable to high performance storage, external media drives, multiple HD displays, HD media and editing systems as well as legacy I/O hubs and devices. Giving users the ability to have thin and light ultrabook systems but also the power, capability and expandability of a traditional workstation

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2.1.4 Connector Pin Diagram:

PIN NO.

SIGNAL

FUNCTION

PIN 1

GND

Ground

PIN 2

HPD

Hot plug detect

PIN 3

HS0TX(P)

High speed transmitter 0 (positive)

PIN 4

HSORX(P)

High speed receiver 0 (positive)

PIN 5

HS0TX(N)

High speed transmitter 0 (negative)

PIN 6

HS0RX(N)

High speed receiver 0 (negative)

PIN 7

GND

Ground

PIN 8

GND

Ground

PIN 9

LSR2P TX

Low speed transmit

PIN 10

GND

Reserved

PIN 11

LSR2P RX

Low speed receiver

PIN 12

GND

Reserved

PIN 13

GND

Ground

PIN 14

GND

Ground

PIN 15

HS1TX(P)

High speed transmitter 1 (positive)

PIN 16

HS1TX(P)

High speed receiver 1 (positive)

PIN 17

HS1TX(P)

High speed transmitter 1 (negative)

PIN 18

HS1TX(P)

High speed receiver1 (negative)

PIN 19

Ground

Ground

PIN 20

DPPWR

power

2.1.5 Copper vs. Optical:

The interface was originally intended to run exclusively on an optical physical layer using components and flexible optical fiber cabling developed by Intel partners and at Intel's Silicon Photonics lab. However, it was discovered that conventional copper wiring could furnish the desired bandwidth at lower cost which lead Intel switched to electrical connections to reduce costs and to supply up to 10 W of power to connected devices.

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Intel and industry partners are still developing optical Thunderbolt hardware and cables. The optical fiber cables are to run "tens of meters" but will not supply power, at least not initially. The conversion of electrical signal to optical will be embedded into the cable itself, allowing the current MDP connector to be forward compatible, but eventually Intel hopes for a purely optical transceiver assembly embedded in the PC.

2.1.6 Peripheral devices:

While the first computer to feature the interface is released by Apple in early 2011, it took some time for peripheral devices supporting the Thunderbolt interface to hit the market place, with initial ones not starting to hit retail stores until late 2011. Storage manufacturer Promise Technology was the first company to release large-sized RAID storage devices, with their Pegasus R4 (4 drive) and Pegasus R6 (6 drive) enclosures, however they were reasonably expensive for the average consumer.

By the third quarter of 2012, other manufacturers started to release cables of varying length up to the maximum supported length of three meters, whilst some who were releasing storage enclosures started to include a Thunderbolt cable with their devices.

2.1.7 Security:

Since Thunderbolt extends the PCI Express bus, which is the main expansion bus in current systems, it allows very low-level access to the system. PCI devices need to have unlimited access to memory, and may thus compromise security. This issue exists with many high-speed expansion buses, including PC Card, Express Card and FireWire.

An attacker could, for example, maliciously configure a Thunderbolt device. On connecting to a computer, the device, through its direct and unimpeded access to system memory and other devices, would be able to bypass almost all security measures of the OS and have the ability to read encryption keys or install malware

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2.2 Protocol Architecture:

Thunderbolt technology is based on a switched fabric architecture with full-duplex links. Unlike bus-based I/O architectures, each Thunderbolt port on a computer is capable of providing the full bandwidth of the link in both directions with no sharing of band- width between ports or between upstream and downstream directions. The Thunderbolt protocol architecture can be abstracted into four layers

Figure 2: The architecture of thunderbolt technology

A Thunderbolt connector is capable of providing two full duplex channels. Each channel provides bi-directional 10Gbps of band-width, as shown in Figure A. A The Thunderbolt Connector is extremely small, making it ideal for Ultra-books, plus it is enables connection to Thunderbolt products or to Display Port devices. Compatibility to DisplayPort devices is provided by an interoperability mode between host devices and DisplayPort products; if a DisplayPort device is detected, a Thunderbolt controller will drive compatibility mode DisplayPort signals to that device. Support for DisplayPort also enables easy connectivity to other display types, such as HDMI, with an adapter

Thunderbolt technology leverages the native PCI Express and DisplayPort device drivers available in most operating systems today. Native software support means no additional software development is required to use a Thunderbolt technology enabled product.

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2.2.1 Protocol Architecture continuation:

The Thunderbolt protocol physical layer is responsible for link maintenance including hot-plug detection, and data encoding to provide highly efficient data transfer. The physical layer has been designed to introduce very minimal overhead and provides full 10Gbps of usable bandwidth to the upper layers. The heart of the Thunderbolt protocol architecture is the Transport layer.

DisplayPort and PCI Express protocols are mapped onto the transport layer. The mapping function is provided by a protocol adapter which is responsible for efficient encapsulation of the mapped protocol information into transport layer packets. Mapped protocol packets between a source device and a destination device may be routed over a path that may cross multiple Thunderbolt controllers. At the destination device, a protocol adapter recreates the mapped protocol in a way that is indistinguishable from what was received by the source device.

The advantage of doing protocol mapping in this way is that Thunderbolt technology-enabled product devices appear as PCI Express or DisplayPort devices to the operating system of the host PC, thereby enabling the use of standard drivers that are available in many operating systems today

Figure 3: PCI Express and DisplayPort transported between Thunderbolt controllers over a Thunderbolt cable

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2.3 Controller Architecture:

A Thunderbolt controller is the building block used to create Thunderbolt products. A Thunderbolt controller contains:

A high-performance, cross-bar Thunderbolt protocol switch

One or more Thunderbolt ports

One or more DisplayPort protocol adapter ports

One or more Thunderbolt ports

A PCI Express switch with one or more PCI Express protocol adapter port

Figure 4: Block diagram of PC system showing Thunderbolt controller connections.

The external interfaces of a Thunderbolt controller that are connected in a system depend on the application for which the system is designed. An example implementation of a host-side Thunderbolt controller. Host side Thunderbolt controllers have one or more DisplayPort input interfaces, a PCI Express interface along with one or more Thunderbolt technology interface. By integrating all the features necessary to implement Thunderbolt into a single chip, the host-side controller enables system vendors to easily incorporate into their designs.

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2.4 Thunderbolt Technology Possibilities:

With Thunderbolt products, performance, simplicity and flexibility all come together. Users can add high-performance features to their PC over a cable, daisy chaining one after another, up to a total of 6 devices, including up to 2 high resolution DisplayPort v1.1a displays. Because Thunderbolt technology delivers two full-bandwidth channels, the user can realize high bandwidth on not only the first device attached, but on downstream devices as well.

Users can connect to their other non-Thunderbolt products as well by using Thunderbolt technology adapters (e.g., to connect to native PCI Express devices like eSata, Firewire). These adapters can be easily built using a Thunderbolt controller with off-the-shelf PCI Express-to-

other technology controllers

With Thunderbolt technology, workstation-level performance and feature expansion can supported with various Thunderbolt devices that are in the market. By leveraging the inherently tight timing synchronization (within 8ns across 7 hops downstream from a host) and low latencies of Thunderbolt technology, broadcast quality media can be produced using Thunderbolt products. Thunderbolt technology gives you access to a world of high-speed peripherals and high-resolution displays via one simple port and a cable that carries both DisplayPort and PCIe.

The new initiative Thunderbolt ready enables PC manufacturers to offer Thunderbolt upgradeable motherboards within desktop and workstation computers. By using a

Thunderbolt card, Thunderbolts blazing fast speed and uncompressed video capabilities can now be added to any motherboard that includes a GPIO header, so even if your system doesnt have Thunderbolt it is now possible to upgrade to it.

The addition of a Thunderbolt ready card to a PC is a simple and straight forward process. All a user needs to do is connect the Thunderbolt card into the designated PCIe slot, connect a cable to the GPIO header, and utilize an available DP (DisplayPort) out connector from the motherboard processor graphics, or an external graphics card, depending on the system. And since a Thunderbolt card comes with all the necessary cables, software, and instructions, upgrading is a breeze

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3. Early versions of thunderbolt:

It was rumoured that the early-2011 MacBook Pro update would include some sort of new data port, and most of the speculation suggested it would be Light Peak (Thunderbolt).At the time, there were no details on the physical implementation, and mock-ups appeared showing a system similar to the earlier Intel demos using a combined USB/Light Peak port. Apple's introduction came as a major surprise when it was revealed that the port was based on Mini DisplayPort, not USB. As the system was described, Intel's solution to the display connection problem became clear. Older displays, using DP 1.1a or earlier, have to be located at the end of a Thunderbolt device chain, but native displays can be placed anywhere along the line. Thunderbolt devices can go anywhere on the chain.

3.1 Journey of thunderbolt:

3.2 Controllers:

MODEL

CHANNEL

POWER

FAMILY

RELEASING TIME

FEATURES

82523EF

4

3.8 W

Light Ridge

Q4 2010

DEMO

82523EFL

4

3.2 W

Light Ridge

Q4 2010

DEMO

L2310

2

1.85 W

Eagle Ridge

Q1 2011

L2210

1

0.7 W

Port Ridge

Q4 2011

DEVICE ONLY

L3510H

2

3.4 W

Cactus Ridge

CANCELLED

HOST ONLY

L3310

4

2.2 W

Cactus Ridge

Q2 2012

L4410

2

-------

Redwood Ridge

Q4 2013

HOST ONLY

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4. Thunderbolt vs. other existing I/O interfaces:

Thunderbolt gives you two channels on the same connector with 10 Gbps of throughput in both directions. Ultra-fast, ultra-flexible Thunderbolt 2 pushes that to 20 Gbps. You can move data to and from peripherals up to 20 times faster than with USB 2 and up to 12 times faster than with FireWire 800. You also have more than enough bandwidth to daisy-chain multiple high-speed devices without using a hub or switch. For example, you can connect several high-performance external disks, a video capture device and even a display to a single Thunderbolt chain while maintaining maximum throughput

Figure 5: speed of different I/O interfaces

4.1 Thunderbolt vs. USB 3.0:

Intels Thunderbolt with its promise of 10Gbpsperchannel throughput, its quite fast as compare to its natural competitor, USB 3.0 which is at presently at 5Gbps standard and shortly will update to 3.1 which will be at 10Gbps standard. Even then Thunderbolt will outclass in the term of speed as being two channel total speed will around 20Gbps as compare to USB which is single channel.

USB has major advantage that USB ports are so common, theyre in cars and wall plugs and are as ubiquitous as an AC outlet these days. Even if they doesnt support USB 3.0, we can still access your data via USB 2.0. Thats not the case with Thunderbolt, which is extremely rare even on the Macintosh platform

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5. Future-Thunderbolt 2:

In June 2013, Intel announced that the next generation of Thunderbolt, based on the controller codenamed "Falcon Ridge" (running at 20 Gbps), is officially named "Thunderbolt 2" and slated to begin production before the end of 2013. The data-rate of 20 Gbps is made possible by joining the two existing 10 Gbps-channels. This does not change the maximum bandwidth itself but makes using it more flexible. Thunderbolt 2 was announced by Apple in June 2013 on their developer-conference WWDC to be shipped in the next generation of Mac Pro. Thunderbolt 2 is shipping in the 2013 MacBook Pro, released on October 22, 2013

At the physical level, the bandwidth of Thunderbolt 1 and Thunderbolt 2 are identical, and Thunderbolt 1 cabling is thus compatible with Thunderbolt 2 interfaces. At the logical level, Thunderbolt 2 enables channel aggregation, whereby the two previously separate 10 Gbps channels can be combined into a single logical 20 Gbps channel.

Thunderbolt 2 incorporates DisplayPort 1.2 support, which allows for video streaming to a single 4K video monitor or dual QHD monitors. Thunderbolt 2 combines the two 10Gbps bi-directional channels of the original Thunderbolt specification into a single logical, bi-directional channel with 20Gbps of bandwidth. This higher throughput makes it possible for Thunderbolt 2 systems to transfer and display 4K video simultaneously, a feat that todays 10Gbps Thunderbolt cant match. The connectors and cables remain the same between the two versions of Thunderbolt.

5.1 High performance on display:

Thunderbolt 2 gives you access to the latest 4K monitors. In fact, we can connect up to three 4K displays at once. And because Thunderbolt is based on DisplayPort technology, it provides native support for the Thunderbolt Display and Mini DisplayPort displays. DVI, HDMI and VGA displays connect through the use of adapters.

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5.2 No project is too massive:

A single port to connect high-performance storage, a 4K display and high-bit-rate video capture devices. Thunderbolt I/O technology allows you to daisy-chain up to six Thunderbolt peripherals, including an Apple Thunderbolt Display and the Promise Pegasus 2 RAID or LaCie 2big disk.

And with Thunderbolt standard on every Mac, you can easily share high-performance peripherals between your Mac computers. You can even use a Thunderbolt cable to create a fast 10 Gbps link between Mac computers, thanks to IP over Thunderbolt support in OS X Mavericks.

Conclusion

Thunderbolt technology brings a new balance of performance, simplicity and flexibility to end users and product designers alike. As the fastest PC I/O technology, combining two key technologies (PCI Express and DisplayPort) on one shared high performance transport,

Thunderbolt technology opens doors to entirely new system and product designs. Its hardly taken to its limit by peripherals, Due to cost factor, it is out of reach for an average product for now, USB still more popular which practically free. But the technology is spreading gradually and more key players planning to launch their Thunderbolt products. At present it is running at electrical standard but it will be at optical standard in long run

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Appendices

Appendices 1: DisplayPort

DisplayPort is a digital display interface developed by the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA). The interface is primarily used to connect a video source to a display device such as a computer monitor, though it can also be used to carry audio, USB, and other forms of data

The VESA specification is royalty-free VESA designed it to replace VGA, DVI and FPD-Link Backward compatibility to VGA and DVI by using active adapters, enables users to use DisplayPort fitted video sources without replacing existing display devices

Appendices 2: PCIe

PCI Express (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express), officially abbreviated as PCIe, is a high-speed serial computer expansion bus standard designed to replace the older PCI, PCI-X, and AGP bus standards. PCIe has numerous improvements over the aforementioned bus standards, including higher maximum system bus throughput, lower I/O pin count and smaller physical footprint, better performance-scaling for bus devices, a more detailed error detection and reporting mechanism (Advanced Error Reporting (AER)), and native hot-plug functionality. Recent revisions of the PCIe standard support hardware I/O virtualization

Appendices 3: Mini DisplayPort connector

Mini DisplayPort (mDP) is a standard announced by Apple in the fourth quarter of 2008. Shortly after announcing the Mini DisplayPort, Apple announced that it would license the connector technology with no fee. The following year, in early 2009, VESA announced that Mini DisplayPort would be included in the upcoming DisplayPort 1.2 specification

Appendices 4: Firewire 800

FireWire 800 is ideal for anyone dealing with bandwidth-intensive projects, such as high-speed data storage or professional video capture and editing. For high-speed data storage, users will see double the transfer rate that they did with original FireWire and two times the usable bandwidth of USB 2.0. Users will also enjoy true plug and play connectivity, real-time data delivery and the ability to power external devices through the bus.

Appendices 5: USB 3.0

The USB 3.0 specification is similar to USB 2.0 but with many improvements and an alternative implementation. Earlier USB concepts like endpoints and four transfer types (bulk, control, isochronous and interrupt) are preserved but the protocol and electrical interface are different. The specification defines a physically separate channel to carry USB 3.0 traffic.

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Appendices 5: Thunderbolt Ready

'Thunderbolt ready' program that will allow users to add Thunderbolt to their PC with the addition of a simple card. The company is hoping the upgrade program will expand the footprint of Thunderbolt and is working with PC manufacturers to label motherboards 'Thunderbolt ready,' which means users without Thunderbolt can add it at a later date themselves.

Appendices 5: Solid State Drive

A solid-state drive (SSD) (also known as a solid-state disk or electronic disk, though it contains no actual "disk" of any kind, nor motors to "drive" the disks) is a data storage device using integrated circuit assemblies as memory to store data persistently. SSD technology uses electronic interfaces compatible with traditional block input/output (I/O) hard disk drives, thus permitting simple replacement in common applications. Also, new I/O interfaces like SATA Express are created to keep up with speed advancements in SSD technology.

Appendices 6: RAID

RAID is now used as an umbrella term for computer data storage schemes that can divide and replicate data among multiple physical drives: RAID is an example of storage virtualization and the array can be accessed by the operating system as one single drive. The different schemes or architectures are named by the word RAID followed by a number (e.g. RAID 0, RAID 1). Each scheme provides a different balance between the key goals: reliability and availability, performance and capacity.

Appendices 7: 4K Display

4K resolution is a generic term for display devices or content having horizontal resolution on the order of 4,000 pixels. Several 4K resolutions exist in the fields of digital television and digital cinematography. In the movie projection industry, Digital Cinema Initiatives is the dominant 4K standard.

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REFERENCES:

Thunderbolt Technology brief, www.thunderbolttechnology.net, 2012

Apple-India, Thunderbolt next generation high speed technology, Apple website,2011

Andrew Ku, everything you need to know about thunderbolt Toms hardware, 2013

Intel, Thunderbolt Ready-upgrade program for PC, Motherboard, workstation

computers, Benchmark review.com, 16 Nov 2013.

James Gilbraith, Promise preps for MAC Pro with Thunderbolt 2 macworld.com, 16 Sep 2013

Thunderbolt (interface), Wikipedia, Retrieved Nov 18, 2013

Jason Ziller, Thunderbolt Technology update Intel, 8 April, 2013

Gordon Mah Ung, Thunderbolt vs. USB 3.0 maximumpc.com, 29 Jan 2013

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