"Technically, Thunderbolt is pretty interesting as both data and display signals will transfer over the same cable with arbitration from the controller chip. It is a bi-directional communication that actually provides 10 Gbps of bandwidth PER PORT. It remains backwards compatible with existing DisplayPort displays, but since those devices likely do NOT have female mini-DisplayPort connections on them, they will not facilitate the daisy-chaining required for connecting multiple devices to a single Thunderbolt connection. Unlike what some people worried, Thunderbolt will carry some amount of power over cable, though how much hasn't really been specified yet. Thunderbolt can work on both data streams at the same time and in both directions and it seems to get the full 10 Gbps of rated bandwidth, in each direction. This is what gives the technology the advantage over the USB 3.0 of today. "