Light Peak Coming in Early 2011 With Apple at Forefront?

MacRumors · Nov 4, 2010

CNET reports that Intel is preparing to launch its Light Peak high-speed computer connection standard as soon as early next year, paving the way for 10 Gbps connections.

Light Peak is now on track to appear in products in the first half of 2011--and likely earlier in the year than later, according to an industry source familiar with the progress of the technology. Light Peak is significantly faster than even USB 3.0, carrying data at 10 gigabits per second in both directions simultaneously.

Apple is expected to play a key role in the deployment of Light Peak, as the company was said to have played a key role in the development of the technology.

. . .Apple is expected to back Light Peak, if past comments from Intel still hold. Shortly after its annual developer conference in 2009, Intel said that it had showed the technology to third parties, got feedback, then incorporated the feedback into the next design, adding, at that time, that "Apple is an innovating force in the industry." (Apple has reportedly claimed that it conceived the idea for Light Peak.)

If Apple implements Light Peak, it would be a safe bet that the company will have a lot to say about the technology--maybe with a catchy name in tow. And it would probably not be wild speculation to say that Apple would want to be the first to use it.

The apparently-imminent release of Light Peak technology could explain the reluctance of Intel to adopt support for USB 3.0 in its chipsets and Apple CEO Steve Jobs' recent claims that the company doesn't see USB 3.0 "taking off". With the two companies reportedly collaborating on the even faster Light Peak standard envisioned as a replacement for USB, FireWire and various display connector standards, they may simply have decided to bypass USB 3.0 entirely.

Article Link: Light Peak Coming in Early 2011 With Apple at Forefront?

Eidorian · Nov 4, 2010

And you thought Mini-DisplayPort was bad enough...

Gen · Nov 4, 2010

If it's faster and better, why not
Let's just hope they do it sooner than later, before USB3.0 gets mainstream

blackpond · Nov 4, 2010

As I recall, Apple backed blu-ray as well. We see how well that went.

This would be awesome to see, though.

h1r0ll3r · Nov 4, 2010

So that's why there's no USB 3.0 coming from Apple.

eawmp1 · Nov 4, 2010

Eidorian said:
And you thought Mini-DisplayPort was bad enough...

At least this promises significant performance gains, rather than being a differently-shaped plug.

talkingfuture · Nov 4, 2010

Looks very interesting, hopefully Apple will be at the forefront of adopting it.

Tower-Union · Nov 4, 2010

How is this anything like the mini-display port? With Intel backing/designing it, this could easily become a new industry standard. A replacement for USB 3 - as TFS states. Good grief

.

Hitchophilia · Nov 4, 2010

Hopefully Apple finds a way to sneak 'power over lightpeak' into the standard spec.

Otherwise it's nice, but won't replace USB3.

AAPLaday · Nov 4, 2010

Now might not be the best time to pick up an iMac then i guess

Hellhammer · Nov 4, 2010

Looks like Intel is changing its plans all the time. Couple of months ago the release date was late 2011 and 2012 for first computers with LP.

http://www.guru3d.com/news/intel-light-peak-arrives-in-2012/

Somehow I believe the late 2011 more as that's what Intel said in IDF

joskewarez · Nov 4, 2010

Hitchophilia said:
Hopefully Apple finds a way to sneak 'power over lightpeak' into the standard spec.

Otherwise it's nice, but won't replace USB3.

a copper pair for power and a optical pair for data transfer..

kennycheng93 · Nov 4, 2010

Mba

Will it make the next gen MBA even thinner?

jav6454 · Nov 4, 2010

Less power consumption and faster speeds? Dam better be as advertised and not have crippled Light Peak settings. (a tiered approach)

Eidorian · Nov 4, 2010

eawmp1 said:
At least this promises significant performance gains, rather than being a differently-shaped plug.

While I do appreciate the benefits on a single high bandwidth connector for a variety of uses, it's just that USB 3.0 is plentiful and I expect Apple to create it's own feedback loop of an ecosystem until Monoprice can sell the same thing for pennies.

RoboCop001 · Nov 4, 2010

joskewarez said:
a copper pair for power and a optical pair for data transfer..

If LightPeak already supports power, all you had to say was "Actually it already has a copper pair for power."

hippeman · Nov 4, 2010

What exactly do we gain with this new plug? Faster transfers on external devices like HardDrives? I'd like to know.. TIA

Hitchophilia · Nov 4, 2010

joskewarez said:
a copper pair for power and a optical pair for data transfer..

It's not standard as far as I'm aware.

People will need to know that power is available by default or it simply will not replace USB3 for peripherals and portable HDDs.

Think eSata and the awful add on eSatap. Niche at best.

RoboCop001 · Nov 4, 2010

hippeman said:
What exactly do we gain with this new plug? Faster transfers on external devices like HardDrives? I'd like to know.. TIA

I think it also acts as an even more universal replacement for ports than USB, since it'll also replace FireWire AND display connectors. Or so it seems.

Eduardo1971 · Nov 4, 2010

Sandy Bridge and Light Peak. 2011 should be an interesting year for the Mac!

Maybe now all we'll read will be about the Mac and not about the iPhone/iPad.

3282868 · Nov 4, 2010

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C134 Safari/6533.18.5)

Noooo!!! I just bought a 2010 6-Core! I even researched and checked the odds of Apple incorporating Light Peak into their systems and felt fairly confident it wouldn't be until 2012. So much for fairly confident lol. Oh well, technology.

AAPLaday · Nov 4, 2010

bedifferent said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C134 Safari/6533.18.5)

Noooo!!! I just bought a 2010 6-Core! I even researched and checked the odds of Apple incorporating Light Peak into their systems and felt fairly confident it wouldn't be until 2012. So much for fairly confident lol. Oh well, technology.

This is only a rumour though. It may not happen till late next year at earliest. But i do see your point

joskewarez · Nov 4, 2010

Hitchophilia said:
It's not standard as far as I'm aware.

People will need to know that power is available by default or it simply will not replace USB3 for peripherals and portable HDDs.

Think eSata and the awful add on eSatap. Niche at best.

indeed, it's not a standard, but it is very likely that it will become a bus-powered interface.
by the way for the european people: the apple store is down, something new is coming?

KnightWRX · Nov 4, 2010

Backwards compatibility is going to seriously hurt this thing compared to USB3.

NorCalLights · Nov 4, 2010

bedifferent said:
Noooo!!! I just bought a 2010 6-Core! I even researched and checked the odds of Apple incorporating Light Peak into their systems and felt fairly confident it wouldn't be until 2012. So much for fairly confident lol. Oh well, technology.

I'm sure there will be Light Peak PCI cards. Congrats on your Mac Pro.

Light Peak Coming in Early 2011 With Apple at Forefront?

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