Josh Hendrickson
Late last month, at Apple’s yearly Worldwide Developers Conference event, the company made a surprising announcement: it will switch its desktops and laptops away from Intel processors in favor of ARM processors. If you were wondering what that meant for Thunderbolt, worry not: Apple says it will support Thunderbolt on its ARM devices.
Although Intel leads the way now in developer Thunderbolt, Apple helped design the original specification. With that, the company has long adopted Thunderbolt in its laptops and desktops.
It’s not hard to see why, Thunderbolt is a superior technology that allows for complicated display setups, even daisy-chaining monitors. But, it is primarily driven by Intel at this point, so the question came if Apple’s change meant losing the standard.
But Apple says it will bring Thunderbolt to its ARM-based laptops and desktops. That’s good news for everyone who depends on high-speed transfers. That might even be better news for fans of Apple’s iPad Pro. That ARM tablet currently houses a USB-C port but doesn’t support Thunderbolt. It’s feasible that down the line, Apple could bring the technology over to tablets, too.
Apple plans to launch the first ARM-based devices this year and says it will transition all of its product lines within two years.
via The Verge
