Intel Announces Thunderbolt Networking for PC-to-PC Connections

Intel has announced Thunderbolt Networking. A driver for PCs is coming soon, enabling direct PC-to-PC connections using existing Thunderbolt cables, including from Windows PC to Mac systems.

Thunderbolt Networking emulates Ethernet connections and provides a theoretical throughput of 10Gbit/s between two computers. With existing cables and ports based on Thunderbolt 2, users can quickly transfer files between PCs. Mac PC users were already able to exchange data with each other over a Thunderbolt cable: Apple brought that capability to systems with the release of Mac OS X Mavericks.

Intel does not announce when the PC driver will appear exactly, nor is it known which operating systems the driver will come to, although it seems obvious that Windows will be included. However, the manufacturer demonstrates the possibility at the NAB fair that is currently taking place in Las Vegas. With Thunderbolt 2, Intel focuses on workstation applications such as editing and transferring 4k content. Intel announced Thunderbolt 2 last year, also at NAB. The network technology offers theoretical speeds of 20Gbps per channel.