Fiber optics provide faster data transfers over longer distances compared to copper, Intel officials have said. Intel researchers are also developing technology based on silicon photonics that will be able to move data up to five faster than current Thunderbolt implementations.

Thunderbolt was initially licensed exclusively to Apple, but Intel at IDF said that Acer and Asus would bring the interconnect to Windows PCs next year. The technology will be used in ultrabooks, which Intel is promoting as a new category of thin-and-light PCs with tablet-like features. At IDF, a Windows PC with Thunderbolt connected to a solid-state drive was shown transferring four uncompressed videos at 700 megabytes per second.

Thunderbolt is viewed as an alternative to USB 3.0, which can transfer data at 5Gbps. However, Intel insists that the interconnects are complementary, and the chip maker will integrate Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 support in chipsets for the upcoming Ivy Bridge processors, which will reach laptops and desktops early next year.

Only a few Thunderbolt peripherals are available today because of the exclusivity of the technology to Apple. But with Acer and Asus adopting Thunderbolt for PCs, a larger number of peripheral makers could adopt the interconnect. Thunderbolt currently supports the PCI Express and DisplayPort protocols, which helps reduce the number of connectors needed to attach peripherals to computers.