ASUS Ivy Bridge Motherboards Come With Thunderbolt

More and more reports showing a special header on the new Z77 and H77 models from ASUS have emerged. It’s designated as “TB_HEADER” and seems to be the method ASUS has chosen to provide Thunderbolt connectivity for its new mainboards.

This header most likely transmits the motherboard's DisplayPort link (short for Flexible Display Interface) to the Thunderbolt I/O card.

There will most likely be an Add On card that will connect to the “TB_HEADER” and it will probably be powered by Intel’s own 2-channel "Cactus Ridge" Thunderbolt controller.

The design of Intel’s 2-channel "Cactus Ridge" Thunderbolt chip has a 4x PCI-Express 2.0 connection.

The models that will include support for the Add On card are: Maximus V Gene, P8Z77-V Deluxe, P8Z77-V Pro, P8Z77-V, Sabertooth Z77, P8H77-V, and the P8H77-M Pro and availability is slated for 27th of April 2012.

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