The Initial Thunderbolt Speed Bump: Likely in 2014

 

One of the most interesting use cases for Thunderbolt is as a connection to an external GPU for thin and light notebook users, especially Ultrabook/MacBook Air users that are departed with nil more than integrated art. We've had concerns about the latency and bandwidth offered by Thunderbolt for use with an surface GPU (1.25GB/s within each direction). Despite the concerns, MSI demonstrated a functional external GPU solution at CES this week (the GUS II).   The GUS II is limited to PCIe cards that don't require additional potency beyond what's delivered by the slot itself, which ensures that you won't run into the bandwidth limitations that you'd seat next to higher end GPUs.   Time the idea of shaving a notebook with a mainstream external GPU is interesting, what's really exciting is the potential to operate a high end GPU (think $300+). To enable high end external GPU support that makes sense we'll demand more bandwidth from Thunderbolt. Intel's focussing on Thunderbolt is to drive approval and it doesn't want to quickly rev the spec before the opening release has a chance to increase popularity. As a result, Intel told me that we won't see any increase in Thunderbolt speeds for the next two years. If the technology ramps well (adoption is still very slow as the number of systems next to Thunderbolt leg are limited and TB tendency are expensive) then the market volition be ripe for an updated book in 2014.   Expect to hear about a faster revision of Thunderbolt in late 2013 and active into 2014.

Source: http://www.anandtech.com/show/5405/the-first-thunderbolt-speed-bump-likely-in-2014