Thunderbolt 2, the 20 Gbps successor to 2011’s Thunderbolt, has just arrived in its first commercial product, and it surprisingly doesn’t originate from a lab in Cupertino. ASUS, not Apple, is the first to launch a Thunderbolt 2 product with the Z87-Deluxe/Quad motherboard.
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The board, announced Monday, utilizes Intel’s Falcon Ridge controller to provide two Thunderbolt ports capable of up to 20 Gbps each, twice the maximum bandwidth of the original Thunderbolt specification. The ports, like those coming soon from other manufacturers, are fully backward compatible with first-generation Thunderbolt devices and cables; first-generation devices will simply run at the slower 10 Gbps rate when connected to Thunderbolt 2 ports.
The board also sports an HDMI port, which combines with the two Thunderbolt ports to enable three displays at up to 4K resolution, three PCI Express x16 slots, ten 6 Gbps SATA ports, eight USB 3.0 ports, and four DIMM slots. ASUS is also including its NFC Express accessory for those with Near-Field Communication compatible devices.
Pricing has yet to be announced but the Z87 Deluxe line rests near the top of ASUS’s pricing spectrum, with current boards selling for around $350. A model with Thunderbolt 2 is likely to cost at least as much.
Other high profile releases on the horizon for Thunderbolt 2 include Apple’s radically redesigned Mac Pro and a spec update for the MacBook Pro with Retina Display, both expected to land this fall.
