Ever since Apple began delivering Thunderbolt over a USB-C connector, there has been confusion about the differences between USB4, Thunderbolt 3, Thunderbolt 4, and Thunderbolt 5. In this article, we lift the lid on Thunderbolt and USB connectivity, revealing that Thunderbolt 5 brings significant benefits to the professional audio sector.
 
 
 
Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 4
 

You may have thought that Thunderbolt 4 would be the successor to Thunderbolt. After all, the first generation of Thunderbolt was 10 Gbps, TB2 was 20 Gbps, and TB3 was 40 Gbps. However, that trend was halted with Thunderbolt 4, which also supports 40Gbps.
 
Surprisingly, Intel created Thunderbolt 4, not a successor to, nor its replacement for, Thunderbolt 3. Intel intended for both versions to coexist within the Thunderbolt ecosystem. The key is that Thunderbolt 3 and Thunderbolt 4 can both do something that the other cannot.
 
TB3 and TB4 have been designed to be interoperable because they both use the same protocol. They both use the USB-C connector, offer 40 Gbps bandwidth, support one USB 3 Gen 2 port, support DisplayPort, and PCIe ‘tunnelling’, and you can happily intermix TB3 and TB4 cables and devices. The differences come in what happens in a peripheral and a computer.
 
Thunderbolt 4 is perfect for hubs or docks because TB4 supports three downstream Thunderbolt ports. However, the price for that is that a Thunderbolt 4 peripheral controller supports just one lane of PCIe. That is not a problem in a Dock because the Thunderbolt 4 controller connects to the three downstream Thunderbolt ports, plus an internal USB 3 Hub, which in turn connects to everything else, including external USB 3 ports, USB-to-Audio, USB 3-to-gigabit Ethernet, and USB 3-to-SD, among others. With a dock, you don’t touch the single lane of PCIe.
 
Thunderbolt 3 devices, on the other hand, support just one downstream Thunderbolt port, but the payback for that is that TB3 devices support four lanes of PCIe. Products like Sonnet's professional Thunderbolt 3 products, including Thunderbolt 3 Echo PCIe Expansion Chassis, External GPU enclosures, 10Gb Networking, and Pro Media Readers, all rely on having four lanes of PCIe. It makes no sense for manufacturers like OWC and Sonnet to migrate their professional Thunderbolt 3 product lines (except for Docks) to Thunderbolt 4.
 
Moving onto the computer end of the Thunderbolt connection, Thunderbolt 3 has been described by some as a ‘loose standard’.

 
When it came to Thunderbolt 4, Intel made it a much tighter standard. It had to be 15W PD; 4 lanes of PCIe; 40Gbps cables; two 4K monitor support, with no exceptions if it was to be ‘certified’. If you couldn’t match this spec, you had to describe your ports as ‘USB4’.
 
An example of this was the M1 and M2 MacBook base model specs, Apple listed the ports as ‘Thunderbolt / USB 4’, including Thunderbolt 3, because they could only support one external display. However, Apple was able to list the Pro and Max models as ‘Thunderbolt 4’ because the higher models could support all the specs, including multiple displays.

 
 
What Are The Differences Between USB 4 and Thunderbolt 4?

 

 

 
The simple answer is not much. Thunderbolt 4 and USB4 (as Intel prefers to describe it, without the space) are very closely connected, with all Thunderbolt 4 devices supporting USB4. In fact, it is safe to say that Thunderbolt 4 is essentially USB4 with all the additional features. Alternatively, you could consider USB4 as a lightweight version of Thunderbolt 4.
 

 

A computer must deliver all the TB4 specs to be able to label the port as Thunderbolt 4. This is why Apple chooses to label their ports as Thunderbolt/USB 4; some devices don’t meet the Thunderbolt 4 requirements and therefore cannot be certified as TB4.
 
Because all Thunderbolt-enabled products must be certified, they tend to be more expensive. Because USB4-enabled products are not certified, they can be cheaper even if they offer the same bandwidth. Not certified can also mean the quality is not as consistent.

 
 
Thunderbolt 4 to Thunderbolt 5

 

 
 
Thunderbolt 5 brings significant improvements…
 

 

 
Why Is Thunderbolt Important For The Professional Audio Sector?

 

 
Universal Audio Apollo x16D
 

DAD AX Center
 

Focusrite Red 16Line

 
 
 
Thunderbolt 5 brings together the strengths of both Thunderbolt 3 and Thunderbolt 4.

 

 
Apple Mac computers with M4 Pro, M4 Max, and M3 Ultra chips, including the latest Mac mini, MacBook Pro, and Mac Studio, as well as some professional PCs, feature multiple Thunderbolt 5 ports supported by separate 80 Gbps Thunderbolt buses. These ports provide up to 6000 MB/s of PCIe bandwidth through each port.
 
This is good news for anyone using PCIe-based hardware, such as high-speed storage and cards like Avid’s HDX cards. With Thunderbolt 5, you can utilise all four lanes of PCI Express, but note that this can consume 64 Gbps of the 80Gbps bandwidth available in Thunderbolt 5, leaving 20% of the bandwidth for everything else on that Thunderbolt port.
 
The key takeaways from this are to ensure that your host computer has multiple Thunderbolt 5 ports, each with its own Thunderbolt interface, enabling each port to deliver the full 80Gbps bandwidth. Then ensure that any Thunderbolt PCIe chassis is connected to its own Thunderbolt port, and that other peripherals, such as displays and storage devices, are connected to their own Thunderbolt ports.
 
 

 

What If I Don’t Have Thunderbolt 5?

 
It depends on whether you need to connect multiple Thunderbolt peripherals to a single Thunderbolt port or if you require Thunderbolt bandwidth to connect a Thunderbolt PCIe chassis for either Pro Tools HDX cards or PCIe-connected NVMe high-speed storage.
 

 

production-expert :
https://www.production-expert.com/production-expert-1/not-all-thunderbolt-connections-are-the-same-we-explain


 

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