Intel launched today their Thunderbolt technology, formerly known as Light Peak. Thunderbolt is a high-speed optical cable technology that promises to provide a maximum transfer rate of 10 Gbps. Just to give you an idea, USB 3.0 provides a maximum transfer rate of 4.8 Gbps.

With Thunderbolt you can transfer a full-length Blu-Ray movie in less than 30 seconds. Another advantage of the Thunderbolt technology is the ability to run multiple protocols simultaneously over a single cable, enabling the technology to connect devices such as peripherals, workstations, displays, disk drives, docking stations, and more.

Apple is the first company to have products based on the Thunderbolt technology with the new MacBook Pro laptops.