Intel 'Titan Ridge' Thunderbolt 3 chipset allows for 8K displays, better USB-C peripheral ...
A new Thunderbolt 3 chipset has arrived called "Titan Ridge" that supports not only DisplayPort 1.4, but it also provides to vendors the ability to allow peripherals to fall back on USB 3.1 speeds if not connected to a Thunderbolt 3 host.
The new Titan Ridge chipset allows for a pair of DisplayPort 1.4 signals to be embedded into the connection. At present, Alpine Ridge in the 2016 and 2017 MacBook Pro allow for a pair of DisplayPort 1.2 connections.
As a result, the new controller allows for a 8K display to run at 30Hz without compression, or at 60Hz when Display Stream Compression is used. However, the bandwidth is still limited to 40Gbit/sec, so two 5K monitors are still not able to be connected in a daisy-chain configuration.
Full use of the DisplayPort 1.4 protocol needs a discrete GPU. Integrated GPUs are limited to DisplayPort 1.2, and cannot take full advantage of the new controller.
One of the new Thunderbolt 3 controller chips available from Intel is intended for peripherals, and would allow use cases like a Thunderbolt 3 RAID to connect to a USB 3.1 type C host at the slower speed allowed by USB 3.1. At present, with Alpine Ridge, the Thunderbolt 3 RAID wouldn't connect at all.
Existing Alpine Ridge peripherals are compatible with Titan Ridge devices, and vice versa. However, a Thunderbolt 3 chain appears to be limited to the least capable chip in the chain, so features like the ability to use a Titan Ridge Thunderbolt 3 peripheral at USB 3.1 type C generation 2 10Gbit/sec speeds won't be supported on a mixed chain.
Intel has not published pricing of the new Titan Ridge controllers and intends to do so later in the quarter. Intel has been supporting the chipset in software since the summer of 2017, while still shipping Alpine Ridge controllers.
At present, none of Apple's computers, including the newly released iMac Pro, has a Titan Ridge Thunderbolt 3 controller. It is not clear if new Thunderbolt 3 cables will need to be purchased to support the DisplayPort 1.4 embed, and the USB 3.1 type C fall-back.
Intel has plans to loosen up licensing restrictions on Thunderbolt 3 in 2018, as well as make the technology royalty-free.
The new Titan Ridge chipset allows for a pair of DisplayPort 1.4 signals to be embedded into the connection. At present, Alpine Ridge in the 2016 and 2017 MacBook Pro allow for a pair of DisplayPort 1.2 connections.
As a result, the new controller allows for a 8K display to run at 30Hz without compression, or at 60Hz when Display Stream Compression is used. However, the bandwidth is still limited to 40Gbit/sec, so two 5K monitors are still not able to be connected in a daisy-chain configuration.
Full use of the DisplayPort 1.4 protocol needs a discrete GPU. Integrated GPUs are limited to DisplayPort 1.2, and cannot take full advantage of the new controller.
One of the new Thunderbolt 3 controller chips available from Intel is intended for peripherals, and would allow use cases like a Thunderbolt 3 RAID to connect to a USB 3.1 type C host at the slower speed allowed by USB 3.1. At present, with Alpine Ridge, the Thunderbolt 3 RAID wouldn't connect at all.
Existing Alpine Ridge peripherals are compatible with Titan Ridge devices, and vice versa. However, a Thunderbolt 3 chain appears to be limited to the least capable chip in the chain, so features like the ability to use a Titan Ridge Thunderbolt 3 peripheral at USB 3.1 type C generation 2 10Gbit/sec speeds won't be supported on a mixed chain.
Intel has not published pricing of the new Titan Ridge controllers and intends to do so later in the quarter. Intel has been supporting the chipset in software since the summer of 2017, while still shipping Alpine Ridge controllers.
At present, none of Apple's computers, including the newly released iMac Pro, has a Titan Ridge Thunderbolt 3 controller. It is not clear if new Thunderbolt 3 cables will need to be purchased to support the DisplayPort 1.4 embed, and the USB 3.1 type C fall-back.
Intel has plans to loosen up licensing restrictions on Thunderbolt 3 in 2018, as well as make the technology royalty-free.
Comments
Mike, doesn't that confirm the question I had a few days about about TB peripherals eventually being backwards compatible with USB-C devices that don't support TB?
Reference: https://forums.appleinsider.com/discussion/comment/3022447/#Comment_3022447
I doubt new cables will be required--the interfaces are still limited to 40 Gbps of TB3.
Maybe. Active TB3 cables have transceiver chips. Compatibility may be an issue, and Intel went out of its way to not answer the question at CES.
Does this include the AMD GPUs on the previously announced G-Series processors? I would expect those to support DisplayPort 1.4, but you never know.
[EDIT] Never mind, on another reading of the story about the G-Series processors, I see that the AMD GPUs don't replace the Intel graphics, so presumably they will be able to have DisplayPort 1.4.
Thunderbolt was originally conceived as an optical connection and was called LightPeak but was reduced to copper only to save money and allow a power run.
You could run a dedicated copper power connection alongside the optical and have the best of both worlds.
Thunderbolt 3 is claiming 40 Gbits a second which is already too slow for some people using multiple 5K monitors and external storage/RAID.
Consider then that a Dutch team moved 255 Tbits a second over a single optical cable back in 2014. Way over 5,500 times faster than TB3.
500 Gbits over 3 parallel optical cables would be very easy and would set us on the right path for the next 20 years.