The last year should have been a big year for Thunderbolt but for now only Apple Mac line has fully adopted it and according to Intel there are currently over 100 Thunderbolt devices shipping and available but it still has a long way to go in order to reach other standards. Intel has launched a new program that should help in expand of the Thunderbolt on desktop and workstation systems, the "Thunderbolt ready" program and ASUS is already on board with its new ThunderboltEX II expansion card.

According to Intel, the "Thunderbolt ready" program will enable PC manufacturers to offer Thunderbolt upgradeable motherboards within desktop and workstation computers. By using a Thunderbolt card, Thunderbolt’s blazing fast speed and uncompressed video capabilities can now be added to any motherboard that includes a GPIO header (general purpose input/output header), so even if your system doesn’t have Thunderbolt it is now possible to “upgrade” to it.

The addition of a Thunderbolt ready card to any PC will be a simple and straight forward process by simply plugging the Thunderbolt card in PCIe slot and connect the cable to GPIO header as well as available DisplayPort connector.

One of the first Intel "Thunderbolt ready" partners is ASUS with its ASUS ThunderboltEX II which is aimed to be used with the first Thunderbolt ready motherboard, the ASUS Z87 Pro. Based on Thunderbolt 2 technology and to be available next month, ASUS' ThunderboltEX II will provide 20Gbps bi-directional bandwidth, DisplayPort 1.2 capable with 4K video throughput (simultaneous to data) and has an ability to daisy-chain up to 6 devices.

In any case, this should provide additional push for Thunderbolt and we honestly hope it will pick up.







Source: Intel.com, ASUS.com.