In March, we announced that Intel changed its plans regarding Thunderbolt controllers, and will introduce a new serie, know as Cactus Ridge. They are now in production.
If specifications are identical to previous models, the Cactus ridge are smaller in size, while draining also slightly less power, an interesting feature for being use into a mobile computer. Regarding the timing of this release, we can imagine that they will be used in the next generation Apple MacBook models.
To boost the adoption of thunderbolt, peripherals and cable will have to become cheaper, while the controller can have a cost, as well as the interface, it makes no sense to pay 200 USD more for the same external HD because it has a thunderbolt port instead of a USB3.0 or FW800...
