Thunderbolt coming to PCs in April

News that PCs were to be outfitted with Intel's Thunderbolt™ technology has been circulating for some time, but the chipmaker recently set a hard date, revealing that the technology will become more widely available beginning in April 2012.

According to technology news provider DigiTimes, several "first-tier PC players" are preparing to launch Thunderbolt-enabled desktop and laptop PCs this spring. Judging by the success of these early deployments, others are likely to follow in the coming months.

DigiTimes notes that cost has been a major factor in the push for wider Thunderbolt adoption. The speedy interface, which is capable of transfer speeds of up to 10 gigabytes per second, has so far only been available on Apple® products. But now that the price of the technology is dropping, DigiTimes says it should become standard on Windows-based PCs in the near future as well.

The Ultrabook™ computer is one device on which Thunderbolt technology is expected to be included. With the surge of Ultrabook models expected to hit in 2012, Thunderbolt could be a major factor in the success of the technology.