It won’t be long until we get our first look at Intel’s next-generation Haswell chips, but this is far from being the only technology that it has under wraps. During a presentation at yesterday’s National Association of Broadcasters show, Intel finally lifted the lid on the planned evolution of its high-speed Thunderbolt interface.

The report comes from Engadget, which says that the latest iteration of Thunderbolt, known as “Falcon Ridge” will be released early in 2014, doubling the data transfer speed of Intel’s current interface. The current generation “Cactus Ridge” is already capable of transferring data at 10Gbps, but this will increase to 20Gbps with Falcon Ridge, giving it enough oomph to simultaneously display 4K images on a TV and transfer data files. In addition, Intel says that the new interface will be backwards compatible with existing devices and cables, meaning that anyone who can afford a 4K TV has lots to look forward too.

In a second update, Intel announced that it plans to pair this year’s Haswell chips with a second interface codenamed “Redwood Ridge”, which delivers the same 10Gbps speed as Cactus Ridge but comes with far less power consumption. In addition, Redwood Ridge will support DisplayPort 1.2, and will come integrated with some Haswell chipsets, doing away with the need for a separate controller chip. The firm didn’t say which specific Haswell chips will feature integration, but it’s likely that this will be confined to higher-end chipsets to begin with.

In any case, such a move should help to speed up Thunderbolt’s adoption, something that has been a problem until now. While the current Cactus Ridge is twice as fast as USB 3.0’s data transfer rate of 5Gbps, its cables can be expensive at around $30 to $40 a pop, while its use also requires a second controller chip, something that most users don’t have time for. As a result, except for the Apple Mac and one or two other PCs, Thunderbolt really isn’t that widely used.

By integrating Thunderbolt into its chipsets, the interface will not only take up less space but will also cost less, something that might just tempt more peripheral makes to adopt Intel’s technology.