Long, optical Thunderbolt 3 cables are coming soon

Sonnet is teaming up with Archiware to demonstrate the first in a line of optical Thunderbolt 3 cables, allowing for high-speed data transfers across the protocol at long range.

Sonnet will be demonstrating the new cable connected to a Mac mini with Archiware software running in Sonnet's stand. The Mac mini will be controlled from Archiware's stand over 50 meters of as-yet unreleased Corning optical Thunderbolt 3 cable.

The computer will be running Archiware's P5 media asset management software suite, with P5 Backup, and P5 Archive. Archiware staff will control the system, mounted in a xMac mini Server Thunderbolt 3 enclosure from their stand with a keyboard, mouse, and display connected to a Sonnet Echo 11 Thunderbolt 3 dock.

Prior to the release of the Corning cable, Thunderbolt 3 cable lengths have been limited to about two meters. Sonnet says that varying lengths of the Corning cables will be available, with lengths up to that 50 meters that will be demonstrated at the IBC conference.

Pricing on the optical Thunderbolt 3 cables is not yet available. At present, a 18-foot optical Thunderbolt 2 cable retails for $215, and a 200-foot run retails for $999.

13 Comments

lkrupp 10521 comments · 19 Years

About 5 years ago

Wondering if these cables could also be USB 4 compatible. Tech reports seem to indicate USB 4 is basically Thunderbolt 3 with USB 2, 3, and 3.1 backward compatibility.

AlanWynn 23 comments · 5 Years

lkrupp said:

Wondering if these cables could also be USB 4 compatible. Tech reports seem to indicate USB 4 is basically Thunderbolt 3 with USB 2, 3, and 3.1 backward compatibility.

When I spoke to the Corning representative at NAB, I was told these would not support USB. USB 4 had not been ratified, so this may change in the future.

netrox 1502 comments · 12 Years

Just curious.. why does it matter what kind of cable materials are used to transmit data as long as a protocol is used? Fiber optics has the advantage of transmitting data over longer ranges but is there a reason why we cannot use it for USB protocol? Can't the microchip be embedded in each receptable to do the real time translation?

onehunglow 24 comments · 14 Years

netrox said:

Just curious.. why does it matter what kind of cable materials are used to transmit data as long as a protocol is used? Fiber optics has the advantage of transmitting data over longer ranges but is there a reason why we cannot use it for USB protocol? Can't the microchip be embedded in each receptable to do the real time translation?

It doesn’t matter that it’s optical it only matters what their transceivers support, and yes it could be used for USB if they want it to.

Optical fibres for data transmission are very cheap. Their pricing for 200 feet is a joke. If the user could supply their own fibre - that’d be very interesting.