Acer and Asus Bringing Thunderbolt Love to PCs

As a PC owner it seems that USB 3 or Firewire are my current high-speed connection options. I can only watch as Apple flaunts Intel’s high-speed Thunderbolt interconnect. That will soon change!

Thanks to Acer and ASUS, who have just announced that they will ship computers with Thunderbolt ports starting next year, me and my PC brethren will soon be able to have a Thunderbolt-equipped puter!

Intel’s Mooly Eden demonstrated a Windows-based PC transferring files at 700MBps from an Intel SSD during the company’s Intel Developer Forum.

There were a number of computer manufacturers promising to get on-board with Thunderbolt but most opted for USB 3 and, where Sony did end up using the new Intel tech on its updated Vaio Z ultraportable the cunning company have added their own proprietary twist that only works with a special GPU and Blu-ray equipped docking station.

There’s only a few options out there in Thunderboltland with the majority sending love notes to Cupertino. Obviously the latest breed of MacBooks, iMacs and Cinema Displays are rockin’ the ‘bolt but there are some others out there.

There’s Nikon’s D4 DSLR, LaCie external drives and the controversial (read the comments) Byte-Dock which turns your MacBook into a desktop machine.

Both Acer and Asus are currently working on new ultrabooks such as the Acer S3 and Asus UX21 which should arrive next year, say that they will also ship PCs with Thunderbolt in 2011.

Word is that they will likely use new Cactus Ridge controllers announced by Intel this week, which are believed to offer a cost advantage over current Thunderbolt chips.

The Cactus Ridge chips should be available in the second quarter of next year which happens to be around the same time that Intel’s Ivy Bridge platform launches.

Handy that 😉