Apple is now selling an US$49 cable and has posted a Thunderbolt cable FAQ page (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4614).

Apple's Thunderbolt to Thunderbolt cable is a two-meter long, bus-powered cable that has a Thunderbolt connection on both ends. It can be used for connecting Thunderbolt devices and peripherals to a Mac which has at least one Thunderbolt port.

Running at 10Gbps, Thunderbolt technology can transfer a full-length HD movie in less than 30 seconds, according to Mooly Eden, general manager, PC Client Group, Intel, which co-developed the technology with Apple. The vision for Thunderbolt technology (formerly codenamed “Light Peak”) is to move media faster, simplify connections between devices, and foster new and exciting ways to build and use computers, says Eden.

Combining high-speed data and HD video connections together onto a single cable is instrumental to achieving that vision. Thunderbolt technology delivers this via two communications methods, or protocols -- PCI Express for data transfer and DisplayPort for displays.

-- Dennis Sellers