The Thunderbolt devices at IDF were part of the Advanced Technology Zone, a section of IDF dedicated to demonstrating technologies such as Thunderbolt. Unfortunately, the devices were displayed in a cabinet behind glass; the Zone's only Thunderbolt demo was of the Promise RAID array, released in June (Macworld Lab has ).

Even though IDF attendees weren't able to see demos of most of the displayed devices, it's encouraging to see physical evidence (even if some of the devices are prototype models) that Thunderbolt products are on their way. Here's the lowdown on the Thunderbolt products displayed at IDF.

As , Intel will introduce two new Thunderbolt controllers called Cactus Ridge. One version will have four 10Gbps data channels and support for two DisplayPort connections, while the other will support two 10Gbps data channels and one DisplayPort connection.

Currently, Apple uses the Light Ridge controller (four channels) in the Mac mini, iMac, and MacBook Pro. The Eagle Ridge controller (two channels) is used in the MacBook Air. The new controllers will be smaller than the large Light Ridge controller.