Thunderbolt (interface)

Not to be confused with Lightning (connector).

Thunderbolt
Production history
Designer
Manufacturer Various
Produced Since 24 February 2011; 13 years ago (2011-02-24)[1]
Superseded
General specifications
Length
Width 7.4 mm plug (8.3 mm receptacle)
Height 4.5 mm plug (5.4 mm receptacle)
Hot pluggable Yes
Daisy chain
  • Up to 6 devices[2]
  • Thunderbolt 4: Hub support[3][4]
External Yes
Audio signal Via DisplayPort protocol or USB-based external audio cards. Supports audio through HDMI converters.
Video signal Via DisplayPort protocol
Pins
  • Thunderbolt 1 and 2: 20
  • Thunderbolt 3, 4 and 5: 24
Connector
Electrical
Max. voltage 18 V (bus power)
Max. current 550 mA (9.9 W max.)
Data
Data signal Yes
Bitrate
  • Thunderbolt 1: 2 channels, 10 Gbit/s each (20 Gbit/s in total)[5]
  • Thunderbolt 2: 20 Gbit/s in total
  • Thunderbolt 3 and 4: 40 Gbit/s bidirectional
  • Thunderbolt 5: 80 Gbit/s bidirectional
Protocol
Pinout
Pin 1 GND Ground
Pin 2 HPD Hot plug detect
Pin 3 HS0TX(P) HighSpeed transmit 0 (positive)
Pin 4 HS0RX(P) HighSpeed receive 0 (positive)
Pin 5 HS0TX(N) HighSpeed transmit 0 (negative)
Pin 6 HS0RX(N) HighSpeed receive 0 (negative)
Pin 7 GND Ground
Pin 8 GND Ground
Pin 9 LSR2P TX LowSpeed transmit
Pin 10 GND Ground (reserved)
Pin 11 LSP2R RX LowSpeed receive
Pin 12 GND Ground (reserved)
Pin 13 GND Ground
Pin 14 GND Ground
Pin 15 HS1TX(P) HighSpeed transmit 1 (positive)
Pin 16 HS1RX(P) HighSpeed receive 1 (positive)
Pin 17 HS1TX(N) HighSpeed transmit 1 (negative)
Pin 18 HS1RX(N) HighSpeed receive 1 (negative)
Pin 19 GND Ground
Pin 20 DPPWR Power
This is the pinout for both sides of the connector, source side and sink side. The cable is actually a crossover cable. It swaps all receive and transmit lanes; e.g. HS1TX(P) of the source is connected to HS1RX(P) of the sink.

Thunderbolt is the brand name of a hardware interface for the connection of external peripherals to a computer. It was developed by Intel in collaboration with Apple.[7][8] It was initially marketed under the name Light Peak, and first sold as part of an end-user product on 24 February 2011.[1]

Thunderbolt combines PCI Express (PCIe) and DisplayPort (DP) into two serial signals,[9][10] and additionally provides DC power via a single cable. Up to six peripherals may be supported by one connector through various topologies. Thunderbolt 1 and 2 use the same connector as Mini DisplayPort (MDP), whereas Thunderbolt 3, 4, and 5 use the USB-C connector, and support USB devices.

  1. ^ a b "Apple Updates MacBook Pro with Next Generation Processors, Graphics & Thunderbolt I/O Technology" (Press release). Apple. 24 February 2011. Archived from the original on 10 July 2011. Retrieved 17 August 2011.
  2. ^ a b c "Thunderbolt – Technology Brief". Intel. Retrieved 1 October 2012.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference TB 4 hub was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference TB4 Press deck was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ a b "Thunderbolt Device Driver Programming Guide". Apple. Retrieved 21 December 2011.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference faq was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Shamah, David. "Thunderbolt 3: How USB cooperation could lead to 100 million connected computers soon". ZDNet. Retrieved 26 August 2021.
  8. ^ Shah, Agam (6 June 2013). "Intel shows 'world's fastest thumb drive'". Computerworld. Retrieved 26 August 2021.
  9. ^ Frakes, Dan (24 February 2011). "What you need to know about Thunderbolt". MacWorld. Retrieved 17 April 2019.
  10. ^ Cunningham, Andrew. "USB 3.1 and Type-C: The only stuff at CES that everyone is going to use". Ars Technica.