Fiber-optic communications
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| January 2025 | Google Fiber unveiled new updated internet plans and speeds, discontinuing the 1TB free Google Drive offering. |
| October 2024 |
Thunderbolt
Apple announced Mac Mini (M4 Pro, 2024) and 14-inch and 16-inch Macbook Pro (M4 Pro/Max, 2024) models, which feature three Thunderbolt 5 ports.
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| September 2024 |
Thunderbolt
Intel introduces the Barlow Ridge family Thunderbolt 5 controller (JHL9540), offering 40 Gbit/s speed, USB4 v2 compliance, 3x DisplayPort 2.1, and PCIe x4 Gen 4 support.
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| 2023 | The Google Fiber store in Austin was closed, though the network buildout in the city continued. |
| October 2023 | Google Fiber rebranded to GFiber and announced plans to offer 20Gig internet and Wi-Fi 7 hardware. |
| September 12 2023 |
Thunderbolt
Intel previewed Thunderbolt 5 (codenamed Barlow Ridge), aligning with USB4 2.0 specification. The new interface provides symmetric bandwidth of 80 Gbit/s and unidirectional bandwidth of 120 Gbit/s for displays, supporting dual 8K displays at 60 Hz.
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| August 21 2023 | Google Fiber launched its 5 Gig service in the Austin market, offering significantly enhanced internet speeds. |
| August 2022 | Google Fiber announced expansion into 22 metro areas across Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Nebraska, and Nevada, including Mesa, Arizona, and Colorado Springs, Colorado. |
| March 2022 | Google Fiber announced expansion to the Des Moines, Iowa metro area, marking its first expansion in five years. |
| March 2022 |
Thunderbolt
Apple released Studio Display featuring one Thunderbolt 3 port.
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| March 22 2022 | Google announced the start of service in Sandy and North Salt Lake, and approval to begin construction in White City, Draper, Riverton, Springville, West Bountiful, and West Jordan. |
| February 24 2022 | Google announced Google Fiber expansion into West Jordan, Utah, with construction slated to begin later in 2022 and first customers expected around early 2023. |
| February 2 2022 | Google announced Google Fiber expansion into Draper, Utah, with infrastructure construction planned to begin in spring 2022 and estimated completion in one year. |
| January 2022 | TV service was fully discontinued for existing clients. |
| 2021 |
Thunderbolt
Apple started to include Thunderbolt 4 on some of their devices, beginning with the MacBook Pro.
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| 2021 |
Thunderbolt
Copper Thunderbolt 4 cables were released, offering full 40 Gbit/s speed and supporting backward compatibility with USB and DisplayPort standards.
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| December 28 2021 | Google posted a blog article reflecting on the year, confirming that Millcreek, South Salt Lake, Holladay, and Taylorsville began offering Google Fiber service in 2021. |
| December 14 2021 | Google announced Google Fiber expansion into Riverton, Utah, with construction expected to begin in the second half of 2022 and customer service anticipated for late 2022 or early 2023. |
| October 20 2021 | Google announced Google Fiber expansion into Springville, Utah, with construction planned to begin in spring 2022 and continue through 2023. |
| October 8 2021 | Google announced plans to expand Google Fiber into South Jordan, Utah, with initial service expected in early 2022. |
| July 26 2021 | Google announced Google Fiber expansion into North Salt Lake, Utah, with construction expected to begin soon after. |
| May 5 2021 | Google announced Google Fiber expansion into Sandy, Utah, with an initial timeline to complete an 'initial footprint' within two years. |
| April 22 2021 | Google announced Google Fiber expansion into Taylorsville, Utah. |
| March 22 2021 | Google Fiber announced its launch of high-speed Internet, TV, and telephone service in northeast West Des Moines, Iowa, expanding its telecommunications service to a new urban area. |
| March 11 2021 | Google announced the start of Google Fiber construction in Holladay, Utah, with plans originally approved in November 2020. |
| February 25 2021 | Google announced Google Fiber expansion into South Salt Lake, Utah. |
| January 2021 |
Thunderbolt
Intel introduces the Hoover Ridge Thunderbolt 4 controller (JHL8140) in Q1, providing TB4/USB4 endpoint support and compatibility features.
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| November 2020 |
Thunderbolt
Supporting products for Thunderbolt 4 began arriving in the market, including Intel Tiger Lake mobile processors for Intel Evo notebooks and 8000-series standalone Thunderbolt controllers with Goshen Ridge (for devices) and Maple Ridge (for hosts) codenames.
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| October 2020 |
Thunderbolt
Intel launches the Maple Ridge family Thunderbolt 4 controllers, including the JHL8340 and JHL8540 models, featuring 40 Gbit/s speed and USB4 compliance.
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| September 2020 |
Thunderbolt
Corning released optical Thunderbolt 3 cables in multiple lengths.
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| September 2020 |
Thunderbolt
Intel releases the JHL8440 Thunderbolt 4 peripheral controller, offering 40 Gbit/s speed, USB4 compliance, and support for 4 Thunderbolt ports with advanced tunneling capabilities.
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| July 2020 |
Thunderbolt
The final specification for Thunderbolt 4 was released, detailing key technical improvements including minimum 32 Gbit/s PCIe link bandwidth, support for dual 4K displays, and enhanced direct memory access protection.
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| July 14 2020 | Google announced Google Fiber expansion into Millcreek, Utah, with the goal of serving their first customers in early 2021. |
| May 2020 |
Thunderbolt
Seven major security flaws collectively named 'Thunderspy' were discovered in the Thunderbolt protocol, revealing significant vulnerabilities that allow unauthorized data access on computers with Thunderbolt 1, 2, and 3 ports, even when devices are locked or encrypted.
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| April 2020 |
Thunderbolt
Taiwanese company Areca released optical Thunderbolt 3 cables in various lengths.
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| February 2020 | Google Fiber discontinued offering TV service directly to new customers, instead promoting virtual MVPD services like YouTube TV, FuboTV, and Philo during sign-up. |
| January 2020 |
Thunderbolt
Thunderbolt 4 was officially announced at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), introducing new technical specifications and improvements over the previous Thunderbolt 3 version.
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| January 2020 |
Thunderbolt
Intel certified ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming ITX/TB3 motherboard, allowing vendors to freely produce Thunderbolt controller silicon.
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| December 2019 |
Thunderbolt
Release of Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR with Thunderbolt 3 ports.
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| August 29 2019 |
Thunderbolt
USB Implementers Forum released the USB4 specification, based on the Thunderbolt 3 protocol specification.
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| June 2019 |
Thunderbolt
Apple unveiled Mac Pro and Mac Pro (Rack) with up to twelve Thunderbolt 3 ports, and Pro Display XDR with one Thunderbolt 3 port.
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| April 2019 |
Thunderbolt
Corning showed an optical Thunderbolt 3 cable at the NAB Show in Las Vegas.
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| April 15 2019 | Google Fiber officially discontinued service in Louisville after facing criticism for disruptive infrastructure installations and poor workmanship. The company agreed to pay $3.8 million for cleanup efforts. |
| March 4 2019 |
Thunderbolt
The Thunderbolt 3 specification was released to the USB-IF, making it royalty-free and enabling its use in forming USB4.
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| February 2019 | Google announced the planned shutdown of Google Fiber service in Louisville, Kentucky, with service to cease on April 15. |
| October 2018 |
Thunderbolt
Apple announced MacBook Air (Retina, 13-inch) with 2 Thunderbolt 3 ports and Mac mini with four Thunderbolt 3 ports.
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| April 2 2018 | Huntsville Utilities continued building fiber infrastructure in Southeast Huntsville, which was subsequently turned over to Google Fiber for service provision. |
| January 8 2018 |
Thunderbolt
Intel announced a product refresh (Titan Ridge) with enhanced robustness and support for DisplayPort 1.4, offering single and double port host controllers and a peripheral controller supporting two Thunderbolt 3 ports.
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| December 2017 |
Thunderbolt
Release of iMac Pro with four Thunderbolt 3 ports.
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| June 2017 |
Thunderbolt
Apple announced iMac models (21.5-inch, Retina 4K, and Retina 5K, 27-inch) with two Thunderbolt 3 ports, and the iMac Pro with four Thunderbolt 3 ports.
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This contents of the box above is based on material from the Wikipedia articles Google Fiber & Thunderbolt (interface), which are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.