Nowadays Intel’s Thunderbolt technology is gaining lots of attention among various OEMs because of its ultra high connectivity which is already inculcated by Apple in its MacBook. With so much fuzz about Intel’s Thunderbolt technology in geeks community, AMD has also conceived this fact and finally is also jumping into the Single-Cable action.AMD showcased a prototype of its “Lightning Bolt” technology at CES 2012, which is researched and designed to deliver data, uncompressed video, and power over a solitary high-speed connection. By combining USB 3.0 and DisplayPort 1.2, AMD professionals say that one Mini DisplayPort socket can drive up to four additional monitors at a time which is an impressive fact. Company professionals told that it will cost 50$ when it will actually turn into reality.
AMD revealed the technology at CES’12 and described its methodology also by informing that machines with ‘Lightening Bolt’ on-board will have a multiplexer embedded within, just in the form of a mini-DisplayPort. It will then be routed or connected to a mini-DP cable, which is only slightly redesigned to cut the costs of whole technology. The mini-DP cable will then be connected to a docking station (like a USB hub), which will contain all the various ports. A single Lightning Bolt port is capable of USB 3.0, display out and power out. Though unlike Thunderbolt, it will not be able to daisy chain devices,its USB 3.0 data transfer speeds will not be at full level and power output will also not be at max. But the whole idea of having a dedicated AMD chip in our notebooks to facilitate the single port, and then also an external docking station that can provide a variety of additional connectivity, including the video, Ethernet, and USB. It will be interesting to witness how it will compete with Intel’s ‘Thunderbolt’ in near future.
