GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd, a leading manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards, and hardware solutions, today announced the B550 VISION D, which is designed for content creators, has achieved Thunderbolt 3 certification. The B550 VISION D provides 40 Gb/s transfer speed for content creators and is compatible with both PC and MAC platforms which makes data storage unlimited from different platforms. Enhanced with comprehensive functions of lighting fast network, and data security, B550 VISION D is certified to be the vital choice for content creators and multimedia studios.

In order to provide content creators with the most complete Thunderbolt 3 experience, GIGABYTE B550 VISION D motherboard integrated the Titan Ridge Thunderbolt 3 IC from the beginning of product development. Adopted with premium materials and exclusive design, B550 VISION D stands out and passes the strict Thunderbolt 3 verification to be the first Thunderbolt 3-certified motherboard among B550 creator series.

GIGABYTE today introduced the B550 VISION D socket AM4 motherboard targeted at creators. Built in the ATX form-factor, the board supports socket AM4 Ryzen 3000 "Matisse" processors, and is based on the new AMD B550 chipset. Within GIGABYTE's product stack, the B550 VISION D is positioned above its B550 AORUS Master flagship board based on this chipset. The board draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS power connectors (concealed under a plastic bit near the VRM heatsinks). A 14-phase VRM conditions power for the CPU. The socket is wired to four DDR4 DIMM slots supporting up to 128 GB of dual-channel DDR4 memory; and two PCI-Express 4.0 x16 slots (x8/x8 with both populated). This is something the AORUS Master lacks, on the other hand, the VISION D lacks SLI certification.

The third PCIe x16 slot is gen 3.0 x4, and wired to the B550 chipset. The board offers two M.2 NVMe slots, one of the two has PCIe 4.0 x4 wiring from the AM4 SoC, the other has PCIe 3.0 x4 wiring from the chipset. There are only four SATA 6 Gbps on offer with this board, as GIGABYTE is freeing up PCIe lanes on the chipset. Unless we're mistaken, GIGABYTE is offering "unofficial" Thunderbolt 3 support. The board features an Intel "Titan Ridge" Thunderbolt 3 controller that puts out two "USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 40 Gbps" ports with DisplayPort passthrough. GIGABYTE is careful not to call these Thunderbolt 3 ports. Networking connectivity includes 802.11ax + Bluetooth 5 WLAN, and two 1 GbE interfaces driven by Intel controllers. The onboard audio solution uses premium ALC1220-VB codec, WIMA capacitors, and AMPs on the front channels. The company didn't reveal pricing.

ASUS today unveiled the ThunderboltEX 3-TR its latest 2-port Thunderbolt 3 (40 Gbps) add-on card for ASUS Intel 400-series chipset motherboards that feature the TB3 header. The full height add-on card features a PCI-Express 3.0 x4 host interface, and puts out two Thunderbolt 3 ports in the type-C format. There are two mini-DisplayPort inputs so you can add DisplayPort passthrough from your graphics card for each of the two Thunderbolt ports. ASUS even includes a pair of short-length miniDP to standard DP cables. It also includes a USB 2.0 cable, and a cable for the TB3 header on your compatible ASUS motherboard. Under the hood is an Intel "Titan Ridge" JHL7540 2-port Thunderbolt 3 controller. The card requires a 6-pin PCIe power input. For now its compatibility list includes all Intel Z490 and H470 chipset motherboards by ASUS that feature the TB3 header.

Today Intel is announcing the Intel Thunderbolt 3 controller JHL7x40 series, code named Titan Ridge. Comprised of three controllers, the JHL7x40 series is a compatible extension of the current line of Intel JHL6x40 Thunderbolt 3 controllers, code named Alpine Ridge. The JHL7540 and 7340 controllers provide computer makers the same Thunderbolt 3 40Gb/s performance and feature set as Alpine Ridge, and also adds DisplayPort 1.4 capability for increased video performance.

The JHL7440 controller was specifically designed for Thunderbolt 3 monitor and enterprise dock makers who choose to offer basic compatibility when a Thunderbolt 3 monitor or dock is connected to a USB-C computer port. To accomplish this, the JHL7440 controller integrates USB-C computer port compatibility so a Thunderbolt 3 monitor or dock can intelligently provide more performance and features when connected to a Thunderbolt 3 computer port, and basic compatibility when the Thunderbolt 3 monitor or dock is connected to a USB-C computer port. Additionally, as with the other controllers in the JHL7x40 series, the JHL7440 supports DisplayPort 1.4.