This is why Thunderbolt 3 requires special active cables to get the additional bandwidth by amplifying the signal to help get around the bandwidth limitation of the connector in a passive configuration.
20Gbps per what? One lane? Two lanes? I haven't heard of this, where can I find more info?
(If it's actually 20GBps with a capital B then we're nowhere close.)
> This is why Thunderbolt 3 requires special active cables
> the 48GBps that HDMI 2.1 and 32GBps that display port 1.4 call for
This part isn't right.
Thunderbolt 3 can run 40Gbps over short passive cables. And that's bidirectional. It's the equivalent of 80Gbps for a display cable.
Displayport 1.4, at 8.1Gbps per lane, is actually slower than USB 3.1 Gen 2.
HDMI2.1, at 12Gbps per lane, is slightly faster but still well short of thunderbolt.
Is it power, video, data? Do I need a special cable for it? Nobody knows.
USB-C and Ethernet are capable of 10+ Gbit speed, and the cables are cheap, not the premium one pays for HDMI 2ab cables. Also Ethernet cables with CAT6+ are found in most buildings. If you want to connect a big screen flat TV dozens meters away or a projector 50 meters away, you need repeater devices and fragile cable arrangements, while with Ethernet cables it would be no problem.