A technology Apple invented is taking off in high-end PCs after 5 years

Thunderbolt, the high-speed connection technology developed by Apple in partnership with Intel, is taking off in high-end PCs, Ars Technica reports.

The port, which allows for very high-speed connections between PCs or displays, has been adopted in Lenovo work stations, Dell's new lineup of high-end laptops, and a range of HP, Acer, and Intel computers. Apple has introduced Thunderbolt into all-but-one of its PC range.

"It's just such an adaptable port," Kevin Sather, director of systems marketing at Razer, a high-end PC maker, told Ars Technica. "It's backwards-compatible with Thunderbolt and Thunderbolt 2, it can do DisplayPort output with two 4K displays simultaneously, as well as passing data through."

PC makers are also warming to USB Type-C, a technology that Apple allegedly invented. A host of new laptops that were shown off at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) included the technology.

Apple first introduced Thunderbolt on the MacBook Pro in 2011 and has brought the technology to all its laptops, bar the new MacBook, over the years. Thunderbolt is available for anyone to use.

The advantages of Thunderbolt over USB or FireWire are speed and the ability to pass data in both directions. This means that devices can be "chained": A MacBook can plug into an external hard drive and a display out of one Thunderbolt port, for example.