Thunderbolt: Not since Firewire has a hardware interface been so enticingly named, and so sparsely adopted. That’s about to change, though, and soon. Intel has announced that Thunderbolt 3 (yes, we’re on the third generation) will embrace USB-C, the universal port of the very near future.

Thunderbolt 3 comes with an impressive spec sheet: transfer speeds of 40Gbps and the ability to connect two 4K 60Hz displays sounds like strange voodoo magic in an age where many, many people haven’t yet upgraded from USB 2.0 machines. (To put it in context, Intel says it can transfer a 4K movie in just 30 seconds). All that speed doesn’t mean anything, though, if no one can be bothered to buy the products that take advantage of it. But that is exactly where USB-C comes in.

Super Speeds, Slow Start

Since its 2011 debut, the Thunderbolt standard has offered data transfer speeds that make its USB counterparts look like a slow walk in the swamp. Developed jointly by Intel and Apple, the original iteration used a Mini DisplayPort-shaped connector to shuttle information at 10Gbps at a time when USB 3.0 could only manage half that. Speed wasn’t its only top-shelf trait; Thunderbolt allowed users to support as many as six peripherals with a single connector.

All of which sounds great, as long as you had Thunderbolt-friendly peripherals to connect. Building it doesn’t always mean they will come, though. Thunderbolt peripherals were slow to materialize, and expensive when they did. Even Apple’s first Thunderbolt cable was a $50 investment four years ago. The few external drives with which it was compatible cost an order of magnitude more. A critical mass of Thunderbolt gear didn’t hit the market until the fall of 2012, again at prohibitive prices.

Thunderbolt 2 first appeared in Apple’s 2013 MacBook Pro, upping the transfer speed to 20Gbps but not doing much more to push adoption. Apple gets partial credit for the creeping pace; long the primary Thunderbolt pusher, it didn’t update its own MacBook Air line until March of this year.

Intel

That’s not to say that Thunderbolt has been a total non-factor. An Intel spokesperson tells WIRED that over 250 Thunderbolt-friendly peripherals have hit the market, and by the end of the year, 100 million computers will be Thunderbolt-equipped. But even those numbers aren’t as impressive as they might first sound. The overall PC accessories market is a near-limitless sea of storage solutions, while 100 million units over four years sounds a bit less striking given that, according to Gartner estimates, nearly 72 million PCs shipped worldwide last quarter alone.

So Thunderbolt, despite being undeniably more capable than its competition, has been held back by cost and availability. Both of those could change with USB-C, and fast.

Port of Call

The advantages of USB-C are myriad, its headline features, though, are more than enough to recommend it. It’s reversible, meaning you’ll always connect your cord on the first stab. It allows for bi-directional power, meaning it can let its host device charge other gadgets or be charged by them. And it’s small, allowing for thinner form factors.

It’s also, importantly, going to have a much better shot at ubiquity. While Apple has led the USB-C charge with its MacBook the same way it spearheaded Thunderbolt in 2011, it’s already found a major compatriot in Google, whose recent Chromebook Pixel refresh had two USB-C ports. The momentum doesn’t stop there; this year’s Computex show, where Intel made its Thunderbolt 3 announcement, is littered with USB-C products.

That’s not to say that all laptops with USB-C will be Thunderbolt-compatible; the MacBook and Chromebook Pixel, for instance, won’t be. But having a universal, underlying port and cable designs will make Thunderbolt that much easier for PC manufacturers to embrace. Intel spokesperson Dan Snyder confirmed to WIRED that the company is already expecting “more than 30 mobile PC designs” that are Thunderbolt 3-equipped to come out within the next year, which would mark a much better start than previous generations ever managed.

Snyder also notes that moving to USB-C also helps get peripheral makers onboard faster. Much like PC manufacturers, they’re “able to share connector and cable technology whether they are making Thunderbolt, USB, or DisplayPort devices.”

As for cost, you’re always going to pay more for better performance, especially when that performance is a full four times better than USB 3.1, the next-closest competitor. Still, you can expect Thunderbolt 3 to be not quite as prohibitive as it was in the past, specifically because there should be plenty more volume. “We expect USB-C connectors and cables to ramp to high volume and lower cost over the next few years,” explains Snyder. “Also, we expect the Thunderbolt 3 solution cost to support broader adoption in the industry.”

Snyder also noted support this time around for “passive” Thunderbolt cables, which will churn at 20Gbps instead of 40Gbps, for commensurately lower cost. (That’s still, by the way, twice as fast as USB 3.1 can manage.)

If you’re one of the few stuck with Thunderbolt or Thunderbolt 2 products, don’t despair; there will be an adapter for that. Which in some ways is a reminder of the real beauty of Thunderbolt 3 getting in on the ground floor of USB-C: You might never need an adapter again.