Apple and Intel Collaborate on Next Generation 'Light Peak' Connectors?

arkmannj said:
I just hope the fancy metallic box has awesome blinking lights !
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It propably will, and an inbuilt li-ion to "save" weight and to give power to the bus. One of the diodes also works as a flashlight, which is one of the selling points to the masses. It will also help you "reduce clutter", is another.
 
Wow, thats incredibly brilliant by apple. They both leapfrog USB, and made sure intel did it. With intels majority of the processor market, they have a MASSIVE amount of pull when it comes to new standards. As long as all companies are allowed to use and implement this, LP IS the future of connectivity.

I can't wait to see how this goes.
 
Pocket lint said:
It propably will, and an inbuilt li-ion to "save" weight and to give power to the bus. One of the diodes also works as a flashlight, which is one of the selling points to the masses. It will also help you "reduce clutter", is another.
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but will it power a desktop bobble-head toy, or a lightsabre or a nurf dart gun ? theses are pressing questions I must know
 
arkmannj said:
but will it power a desktop bobble-head toy, or a lightsabre or a nurf dart gun ? theses are pressing questions I must know
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Yes. The integrated Li-Ion battery (non-swappable, of course) will power a desktop bobble-head toy for almost an hour. This is tested by using the standardized (by Apple only, of course) Bobble-head toy-test*.


[Nurf-guns are, unfortunately, not supported. The Nurf-gun association have stated that they have no intention of upgrading their Nurf-sockets to yet another standard. In a press realase, Michael Molloki, CEO of Nurfs International, stated that instead of adapting this Apple-socket, they will develop their own.]


*Times will vary according to size of bobble head. The test was done with pauses of up to fiften minutes (each) and on a single charge.
 
All you need is a storage device faster than SATA.

W1LLk said:
It's been said before, and I'll say it again. Faster cables are nothing without faster storage devices. The transfer speeds of this cable even exceed the read/write speeds of the Holographic disc drives in development. The only thing I've heard of that comes anywhere close is that electron stack solid state drive in development at Leeds. :apple:
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All you really need is storage faster than SATA to justify the new port. Focusing on Light Peaks top data rate is just a distraction all you need to do is to beat what is currently the fastest transfer method by a significant amount.

Since the building of storage device running beyound 600MB/s is already possible, LP is justified. That is with todays flash, some of the new tech is much faster than flash for reads. In any event fAst storage systems don't imply fast parts, do your recalls in parallel and you easily can saturate SATA.

The other side of this is that you don't build new standard interfaces for today, you build them for what you think the needs of tomorrow are. Interesting here is the intention to eventually get to 100Gbs. That is all about thinking ahead.


Dave
 
lostngone said:
Huh? as far as 10Gb is concerned copper has exceeded that transfer speed years ago. Yes fiber has advantages but in this case you could easily handle the throughput of Light Peak with copper.
What do you consider "any useful distance" If we are talking about Desktop computing I would say ~150 feet would be more then adequate.
Also to say Optical transport does not have any attenuation problems is flat out wrong.
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Sigh. I have personally sent 160 Gbit/s of data down a SINGLE 100 KILOMETRE length of cheap optical cable. At a SINGLE wavelength. And been able to decode all that information ERROR-FREE. I don't know how much that means to you, but it's quite simple. Fibre optic cables can carry an astonishing amount of data, over incredible distances, with very little loss of power. Yes, the equipment to do that cost at least hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars, but it is simply impossible to do that using electrical signals through copper.

Yes, it is possible to transfer 10 Gbit/s via a single copper wire, but the power required is huge. So nobody does it. They all use 8, 16, 32, etc. copper wires to share the load, and keep the clock speeds down. Light Peak can do this over a single optical cable, with a tiny fraction of the power that would be required by an electrical connection. It also has the capability of transferring far more data than in the demo.

Finally, if a single optical cable using Intel's current miniaturised multiplexing and demultiplexing technology can carry 10 Gbit/s, with even more miniaturisation, there's nothing wrong with throwing 4, 8, 16 etc. fibre optic cables together for even more speed.



** End Rant**

I reckon it would be pretty sweet if Intel linked a simplified USB 2 or maybe even USB 3 connector to the two in/out optical fibres of Light Peak to make a truly universal connection. Come to think of it, even USB 1 would be sufficient. High speed devices use the Light Peak connection, requiring the full laser/photodiode package, where as your slow, mundane devices like mouse and keyboard can connect via the electrical USB interface, requiring nothing more than such devices use at the moment. Who knows, maybe they'll be able to modify the existing USB socket design with 2 or 4 fibre optic cables, and merge the two standards completely, ensuring that old devices still work in the new sockets?

Now wouldn't that be cool?
 
wizard said:
Since the building of storage device running beyound 600MB/s is already possible, LP is justified. That is with todays flash, some of the new tech is much faster than flash for reads. In any event fAst storage systems don't imply fast parts, do your recalls in parallel and you easily can saturate SATA.
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Indeed. If your connection is much faster than your device read/write speed, all you need to do is whack a couple of SSD storage devices together in the one case, and use RAID. Problem solved, storage device can now use as much bandwidth as Light Peak can provide.

Hopefully SSD reliability and cost will soon get to the point where this is feasible.
 
layte said:
From reading the articles, that is hardly a fair assessment of the situation (although to be expected on MR). Apple had a specification, Intel had the technical and engineering prowess to hammer out a physical product from that.
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Apple has the team to do it. They gave it to Intel knowing if Intel pushes it then it will become the standard.

Get it? Firewire got hosed because Intel pushed USB. Never mind the fact that Apple was the first to have USB just work.

Then again Apple did invent SCSI, Firewire and now LP. I guess they understand bus technology, eh?
 
dying people

<sarcasm>I loved the guy sniffling and coughing in the background, who obviously was dying. Made it such a bliss to watch....</sarcasm>
 
Erasmus said:
Sigh. I have personally sent 160 Gbit/s of data down a SINGLE 100 KILOMETRE length of cheap optical cable. At a SINGLE wavelength.
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Well good for you!

We are not talking about 160 Gbit/s or 300 feet. This thread is about a unified optical desktop connection call Light Peak that has a throughput of 10Gb/sec.

No one is arguing that fiber isn't fast, all I was trying to say is at 10Gb/sec can easily be done with copper today and with copper you can still power/charge a device. In this case length isn't that big of a deal because this is a desktop standard. Well I guess if you own a house like Bill Gates you might have a problem with copper.
 
simsandwhich said:
Heard it transfers at 10GB/s. At the moment that's a BluRay movie in 30 Seconds. And plans for it to increase to 100GB/s within the next 10 years. :)

Also notable is that it can be used in Exchanges to speed up internet connections and phone calls/SMS... :cool:
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Eidorian said:
Is this Star Trek?
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The article clearly says "10Gbps" which is not the same as 10GB/s (by a factor of 8), so I wouldn't get THAT excited. Ethernet on even my old PowerMac from 2001 was 1Gbps. So this is 10x faster than that. 10Gigabit Ethernet already exists and 100 is in development. So no, this isn't Star Trek. USB 3.0 is 4.8Gbps. So this is roughly 2x faster. If that's supposed to make computers "one connector" systems, I hope that's not shared bandwidth across the entire computer or there will be limitations sooner than people think.
 
MagnusVonMagnum said:
The article clearly says "10Gbps" which is not the same as 10GB/s (by a factor of 8), so I wouldn't get THAT excited. Ethernet on even my old PowerMac from 2001 was 1Gbps. So this is 10x faster than that. 10Gigabit Ethernet already exists and 100 is in development. So no, this isn't Star Trek. USB 3.0 is 4.8Gbps. So this is roughly 2x faster. If that's supposed to make computers "one connector" systems, I hope that's not shared bandwidth across the entire computer or there will be limitations sooner than people think.
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10 GB/s is paltry given the bandwidth you can get from other system interconnects.

My comment about Star Trek about more about the application of light and not the bandwidth. ODN (optical data networks) get tossed around a lot. Not to mention the EPS (electro-plasma system). You can boil that down to steam pipes.
 
Something like this sure would be a nice development. I look at my MacBook Pro and see about 70 different ports and only half of which I use. I really need about 4 to 6 USB ports powered by the bus (well, really 3 but I'm greedy) to plug in numerous hard drives, printers, etc. But to make sure everybody is happy, Apple had to include ExpressCard, FW400, FW800, ethernet, DVI, audio in/out. AAH!! SO MUCH!!!

The more of these that can be converged into a single type of port, the better. I would bet that most people need far more USB ports than anything else, but you'll eventually run across someone with a need for something else.
 
Sounds pretty amazing. The only thing better will be wireless speeds that fast one day! :D

Interestingly I recall an Apple patent published not too long ago that talked about an adaptor for iPod and iPhone connectors to be able to connect to new ports! :eek:

I wonder if the tablet will debut this technology! :) I hope so!
 
Can't wait!

This is insane. Finaly a one standed plug for every thing is one step closer thanks to intel & apple.

If this becomes real and and a new plug for networking, could I plug screens in to a light peak switch and run them off a computer in a different room? That would rock.

Also that speed would be sick for SAN's and network storge.

I hope that other hardware venders jump on.
 
mdriftmeyer said:
Firewire got hosed because Intel pushed USB.
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That's only half the story. Other half is that Apple made firewire so bag of hurt to the others that it was really easy for intel to win with inferior product.
IMHO, the only thing that can destroy LP's success is royalties...
 
mdriftmeyer said:
Apple has the team to do it. They gave it to Intel knowing if Intel pushes it then it will become the standard.

Get it? Firewire got hosed because Intel pushed USB. Never mind the fact that Apple was the first to have USB just work.

Then again Apple did invent SCSI, Firewire and now LP. I guess they understand bus technology, eh?
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Given what we know about Apple, I hardly think they would 'give it' to Intel if they had the expertise to produce it themselves without assistance. Firewire lost to USB due to the costs that were demanded by the license holders (such as Apple), USB was given away essentially free. As for SCSI, Apple certainly did not invent it, even a quick search would have cleared those 'facts' up for you.

Perhaps Apple have learnt their lesson, and will not make the same demands of LP as they did IEEE1394.
 
savar said:
What are you guys talking about? The connectors are all compatible. It doesn't need color coding.
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Imagine this, you have 5 devices hooked up to your computer.
The devices are resting on your desk, the computer is hiding under the desk, together with all the cables.
How to find the cable of your keyboard?
Hence it would be nice to know which cable belongs to which device.

Just a simple clarification :)
 
Furax said:
Imagine this, you have 5 devices hooked up to your computer.
The devices are resting on your desk, the computer is hiding under the desk, together with all the cables.
How to find the cable of your keyboard?
Hence it would be nice to know which cable belongs to which device.

Just a simple clarification :)
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You mean the 'cable' is colour coded? Well all you need are permanent markers in different colours.

Say you have 5 USB devices connected...how can you tell the KB from your Mouse or your external HDD?
 
Sunday off

Macrumors, please do something about the 'Sunday off' situation! Perhaps, you could get somebody to write a few little pieces and control the comments.:(
 
sammich said:
You mean the 'cable' is colour coded? Well all you need are permanent markers in different colours.

Say you have 5 USB devices connected...how can you tell the KB from your Mouse or your external HDD?
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That's exactly what I said, to justify why people where discussing the issue ...
 
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