Thunderbolt | 6

[4] PCI-SIG. (2022). “PCI Express 6.0 Base Specification Revision 1.0.” PCI-SIG.

Thunderbolt 6, USB4 v2.0, PCIe 6.0, DisplayPort 2.1, 160 Gbps, PAM-3 modulation, dynamic bandwidth, 240W PD. 1. Introduction The exponential growth in data generation—from high-resolution video streams to large language models—demands I/O bandwidth that scales accordingly. Intel’s Thunderbolt interface, introduced in 2011, has evolved from 10 Gbps (Thunderbolt 1) to 80 Gbps (Thunderbolt 5) in just over a decade. Thunderbolt 5, announced in 2023, introduced PAM-3 (Pulse Amplitude Modulation with 3 levels) signaling to achieve 80 Gbps bidirectional and up to 120 Gbps for video-dominated traffic. thunderbolt 6

[3] VESA. (2022). “DisplayPort 2.1 Specification.” Video Electronics Standards Association. [4] PCI-SIG