The interface on laptops, which we use almost every day, can be used as video transmission, data transfer, charging, audio output, etc. At present, many laptop products choose to "move the knife" in terms of interface in order to pursue thinness, and some thin and light products even retain only USB-C interfaces.
But USB-C is a versatile physical specification, which may be a USB 3.X interface, a DP interface, or a Thunderbolt interface that Apple users are familiar with. The first and second generation Thunderbolt interfaces adopt Mini-DP physical styling; The subsequent iterations of the Thunderbolt 3 and Thunderbolt 4 interfaces were replaced with USB-C physical styling.
First, the core advantages of lightning interface
The main advantages of the Thunderbolt interface can be summarized simply in two words: high bandwidth, full compatibility.
We all know that higher bandwidth means higher resolution. Take the mainstream Thunderbolt 3 interface, the bandwidth of this interface reaches 40Gbps, which means that it can achieve 4K 120Hz or even 8K 60Hz output; In terms of data transmission, the 40Gbps transmission rate of the Thunderbolt 3 interface is equivalent to twice the 20Gbps rate of the mainstream USB 3.2 interface. You know, the launch time of Thunderbolt 3 is two years earlier than the launch of USB 3.2.
In terms of compatibility, we also take Thunderbolt 3 as an example. Thunderbolt 3 natively supports USB 3.1, DisplayPort, PCI Express and Thunderbolt, PD charging protocols. This means that only one interface is needed to realize data transmission, audio and video transmission, fast charging, external desktop-level graphics card functions and so on. In the past, in order to achieve the above functions, multiple interfaces were required to "divide labor" to achieve it.
Second, the application of lightning interface
Thunderbolt interface with excellent performance and rich scalability. As a mass user, how should you make full use of this interface? The most typical application scenarios mainly include data transmission, video transmission and external graphics docks.
In terms of data transmission, in addition to purchasing some mobile hard disks that support the lightning protocol, you can also use the hard disk box + solid-state drive solution to give full play to the innate advantages of the ultra-fast transmission rate of the lightning interface. When transferring large files such as video, it can save time and improve efficiency.
The choice of Thunderbolt hard disk enclosure also needs to cooperate with Thunderbolt 3/Thunderbolt 4 cables, such as Greenlink's certified Thunderbolt 4 data cable, which supports 40Gbps high-speed transmission. At the same time, this Thunderbolt 4 data cable is also compatible with Thunderbolt 3/USB4/3.1/3.0/2.0 protocols.
Video transmission is also one of the high-frequency application scenarios of the lightning interface, only a lightning cable is required to connect the device to the display and obtain an excellent picture quality experience. The aforementioned Greenlink Thunderbolt 4 data cable also supports high-definition video transmission, up to 8K 60Hz video transmission. In addition, the Thunderbolt 3/Thunderbolt 4 cable also supports daisy linking, which can be expanded through the Thunderbolt interface on the computer and monitor.
If you want to play 3A masterpieces, but are limited by the performance of the device itself, and don't want to pay too much for the cost of replacing the device, you can try the Thunderbolt interface to connect to the graphics dock. It should be noted that this scheme requires the graphics dock to have a Thunderbolt interface, and it also needs to be combined with a Lightning cable to achieve.
Third, the development of lightning interface
Seeing this, I believe that some friends will have a doubt: Thunderbolt 3, which has high bandwidth, strong compatibility, and also replaced the USB-C physical interface, should be more favored by manufacturers, and was it successfully popularized at that time? The fact is that only Apple laptops, as well as some high-end notebooks, are equipped with the Thunderbolt 3 interface.
The Thunderbolt 4 interface, released in 2020, is now widely equipped on mid-to-high-end notebook computers. From the high-end exclusive in the past to the standard configuration of today's laptops, how did the lightning interface step by step?
To understand the problem of "how the lightning interface is gradually on the top", we may wish to start from the development history of the lightning interface.
1. Lightning 1/2, high-end exclusive, limited development
To be precise, Lightning is not an "interface", but a computer protocol. The original Raiden was born in 2009, and it was not until 2011 that it officially appeared on Apple Mac devices in the form of Mini DisplayPort (that is, MiniDP) interface. At the first debut, the Thunderbolt 1 interface can be described as amazing, it has an initial bandwidth of 10Gbps, while the USB 3.0 interface in the same period, its transmission bandwidth is only 5Gbps. It was not until two years after the advent of Thunderbolt 1 that USB 3.1, with a transmission bandwidth of 10Gbps, entered the public eye.
In addition, Thunderbolt 1 also integrates PCI Express data transmission technology and DisplayPort display technology, and can realize data transmission and video transmission at the same time. Then, the iteratively upgraded Thunderbolt 2 has an increased transmission bandwidth to 20Gbps and still adopts the MiniDP interface shape. It can be seen that although the performance of Thunderbolt 1 / Thunderbolt 2 is quite eye-catching, it is mainly used on Mac devices, and it has not gained much opportunity for development and promotion, and "Mac exclusive" has almost become its inherent label.
2. Thunderbolt 3/4: iterative evolution and gradual promotion
Thunderbolt 3, which came out in 2015, met us in the shape of USB-C. Even today, the strength of Raiden 3 is quite strong. The transmission bandwidth of Thunderbolt 3 has been increased to 40Gbps, which is compatible with almost all multimedia transmission protocols you are familiar with, and can be expanded for different devices such as monitors and graphics docks, and even supports 100W high-power charging. It adopts the USB-C interface shape, which supports forward and reverse blind plugging, and is more friendly to the expansion of other devices.
During this period, the trend of thinness and thinning in the PC market is also intensifying, and more and more thin and light books have entered people's field of vision. The price of thinness is the reduction of interfaces. In this way, the high-bandwidth, multi-functional Raiden 3 seems to have ushered in its own spring.
But the ideal situation of "Thunderbolt 3 gaining widespread use" did not appear. At that time, in addition to Apple MacBook and some high-end notebooks above 6,000 yuan, Thunderbolt 3 was almost impossible to see in other products.
There are various reasons why Thunderbolt 3 has not been successfully promoted. First of all, if the equipment manufacturer wants to use the Thunderbolt 3 interface, it needs to pay an additional license fee to Intel. Not only that, the Thunderbolt 3 interface also requires a separate main control chip, which also increases the cost of equipment manufacturers. Licensing fees and additional hardware costs eventually discouraged many manufacturers.
Secondly, the Thunderbolt 3 interface has a wealth of expansion functions, but the purchase of corresponding cables and external equipment also costs more.
Taking Thunderbolt 3 cable as an example, because this kind of cable is an active cable, its production process is relatively more difficult and the production cost is relatively high, which also makes the price of Thunderbolt 3 cable relatively higher. In addition, external devices that support/are compatible with Thunderbolt 3, such as graphics docks, hard disk enclosures, portable hard drives, monitors, etc., also have a higher price. The high cost of cables and external equipment will eventually be passed on to consumers, which invisibly increases the difficulty of promoting Thunderbolt 3.
Most importantly, to have a Thunderbolt connector on a laptop, the processor needs to reserve enough PCI-E lanes for the interface. Friends who are familiar with PC hardware know that PCI-E channels on the processor are limited, which is especially evident on the processor platform of the laptop.
Devices such as discrete graphics cards and NVMe solid-state drives in laptops need to occupy part of the PCI-E lane. In general, a dedicated GPU will occupy 8 or 16 PCIE lanes, while NVMe SSDs generally need to occupy 8 lanes. The protagonist of this article, the Thunderbolt 3 interface, needs to occupy 4 PCI-E lanes. Mainstream consumer-grade processors typically offer only 16 PCI-E lanes. Therefore, for PC manufacturers, compared with the Thunderbolt 3 interface, the priority of discrete graphics cards and solid-state drives is obviously higher. On platforms with fewer PCI-E lanes, it is obviously unlikely to have a Thunderbolt 3 interface.
In order to break the situation of limited promotion of Thunderbolt 3, Intel has also taken many actions.
For example, in 2018, Intel announced a non-exclusive and royalty-free license to the Thunderbolt 3 standard. In March 2019, Intel announced the official opening of the Thunderbolt 3 protocol specification and the exemption of royalties.
At the hardware level, Intel also said that it will integrate the Thunderbolt 3 main control chip in the future CPU, such as the 10nm process processor released at the end of 2019, the ten-generation Core Ice Lake is a typical case. This also means that the cost of PC products with Thunderbolt 3 interface will be further reduced, and the price of the product will be adjusted accordingly, which is also a win-win situation for manufacturers and consumers.
In terms of PCI-E lane support, Intel has also increased the number of PCI-E lanes in its products. Taking the 12th generation Core as an example, the 12th generation Core provides 16 PCI-E 5.0, 4 PCI-E 4.0, combined with the original PCI-E 3.0, can provide 28 PCI-E lanes, leaving more channels for the Thunderbolt interface.
Thunderbolt 4, which came out in 2020, brings a number of improvements based on Thunderbolt 3. Thunderbolt 4 doubles the reserved bandwidth that Thunderbolt 3 uses for data transmission. The Thunderbolt 3 has a reserved bandwidth of 16Gbps for data transmission, while the Thunderbolt 4 reaches 32Gbps. Although both Thunderbolt 4 and Thunderbolt 3 use the same 40Gbps transmission bandwidth, the increase in reserved data transmission bandwidth also means that faster data transmission rates can be obtained by using the Thunderbolt 4 interface, and its performance will also be improved when external PCI-E devices are connected.
In terms of video transmission, Thunderbolt 4 has been upgraded to support dual-screen 4K 60Hz abnormal display or single-screen 8K 30Hz. It is undoubtedly more friendly for users with professional needs.
The iteratively upgraded Thunderbolt 4 has improved its data transmission capacity, compatibility, reliability, and connectivity capabilities to varying degrees. In addition, since 2019, Intel has gradually integrated the Thunderbolt main control chip into the CPU, which means that PC products equipped with the new Intel platform are born with the blessing of Thunderbolt 4. For PC manufacturers, the reduction of manufacturing costs can also benefit consumers, which also indirectly promotes the consumer market's awareness and acceptance of the Thunderbolt 4 interface.
Therefore, in the nearly three years since the advent of Thunderbolt 4, we have seen more and more laptop products equipped with Thunderbolt 4 interface. So far, the lightning interface has gradually changed from the past "high-end exclusive" to "laptop standard", achieving a brilliant transformation.
4. Summary at the end of the article
In any case, the advantages of lightning interface are still quite obvious, high bandwidth, strong compatibility characteristics, no matter in data transmission, video transmission, equipment expansion and other needs, will bring more convenience to users. An interface to implement a multi-functional solution is obviously more in line with user perception and market demand. The wide application of Thunderbolt 4 today also proves this.
The continuous iteration of the lightning interface, in what form and function it will be presented in the future, is still unknown. For the development of lightning interface, what kind of views do you have, welcome to discuss in the comment area.