Thunderbolt cable - what's inside?

As an amateur, from childhood I know what is inside, I like to dig myself in the guts of the piece of iron, and absorb other people's reviews.

Another new product from Intel, actively promoted by Apple, is the Thunderbolt interface (nee Light Peak) for connecting any peripheral devices. Unheard of speed of 10 Gbit / s, multi-connection, bidirectionality and other buns.

Leafing through his favorite iFixIt, he came across the preparation of his native Apple cable.
And here I fell into a stupor on how it is implemented. Maybe I am behind the times, but the meaning of such shamanism is incomprehensible to me.
')


Thunderbolt cable, pin compatible with the old Mini DisplayPort, however, the old cables with the new interface are not compatible .



For those with a foreign "on you", briefly the meaning - on each side of Apple's branded cable is not a simple, but an intelligent connector - besides a bunch of matching resistors, there are also five chips, and a processor with firmware - in general, a rather complicated electronic harness.




This cable costs $ 49 (there, of course). This includes the cost of licensing technology Thunderbolt.
Yes, the Gennum chip, according to the specification, provides a fantastic data transfer rate, but ...

Why do so many intermediaries: "The controller on the Device 1 -> Controller 1 on the cable -> Cable -> Controller 2 on the cable -> The controller on Device 2"? After all, each link in the chain reduces the overall reliability.

- for the sake of speed increase? But this could be done directly on the devices, the cost would have been cheaper, because the same Gennum could be embedded in all subsequent devices, i.e. use them two and not four.
- for the sake of possible increase in cable length (noise immunity)? Unlikely.
- protection against use on other, not Apple devices? Then the connector will be as unpopular as FireWire, i.e. few market.
- to complicate copying by the Chinese? It's not for long.
- a completely delusional option - an increase in the cost of the accessory for the sake of additional profit - but there are easier ways ...

Your opinion?