The USB Promoter Group announced the USB-4 Specification earlier today based on Intel's Thunderbolt protocol specification. USB-4 is being designed to double the speed of USB. 3.2 (at 20Gbps) launching this fall.  The actual USB-4 specification will be finalized by mid-2019 according to the press release that you could read in full here.

In concert, Intel published a press release announcing that it contributed Thunderbolt 3 to the USB Promoter Group enabling other chip makers to build Thunderbolt compatible silicon, royalty-free.

Intel's upcoming 10nm processor code-named “Ice Lake” will be the first to integrate Thunderbolt 3. Processor integration, combined with today’s announcement, is expected to drive large-scale, mainstream adoption of Thunderbolt.

CLICK ON IMAGES BELOW TO ENLARGE

Industry adoption of Thunderbolt 3 is accelerating. Thunderbolt 3 is fully supported in Windows 10, macOS and Linux.

Volumes of PCs with these ports continue to double every year into the tens of millions with  all the latest Macs having Thunderbolt 3 ports.

More than 400 PC designs have been enabled with Thunderbolt 3. Peripheral device volumes also continue to double annually with more than 450 certified devices from a wide number of product categories, including docks, displays, storage and external graphics.