Fastest Flash Key Never Seen From Intel

First with Thunderbolt - not USB - interface

By Jean Jacques Maleval | June 13, 2013 at 3:02 pm

According to several US sources, Intel showed at Computex Taipei the first flash key without an USB interface but for the first time with an Thunderbolt connector.

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(Photo Computerworld)

The prototype has a capacity of 128GB on flash chips from SanDisk inside the chassis and a transfer rate up to 10Gb/s – and twice more with Thunderbolt 2 to come, much higher than USB 3.0 at 4.8Gb/s.

No price has been announced but this world’s fastest thumb drive will definitively be more expansive that an USB key of the same capacity as high royalties are needed to pay for the use of Thunderbolt, not for USB.

External Thunderbolt HDDs already exist. But with such a speed a Thunderbolt key could replace with ease an external 6Gb SATA disk drive.