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

[Macinposh]

I agree with everything disappearing with the exception of USB2.I will go out on a limb here with some predictions.

1. Extremely high resolution displays in the near future. Apple will probably shoot for 4k or better.
2. Home theater. Given the bit rates, Apple could leap frog Bluray by several times.

Dave

Otherwise your list is plausible but those two points wont work out.
Well,not in the near future.
Apple will not pioneer mediaproduction technologies.
They just implement standards and design products depending on market demand.
At the moment in film production max feasible output is 4k. There is no production suites,cameras (exept few prototypes) or projection infrastructure in general for 4k+ production. And wont be for few years untill some 8k/superHD materiel will start to appear.
And it will take few years after that technology comes into the home market as there simply is no delivery systems for the media as the current or near future datatransport infrastructures just cant reach profitably big enough markets.


And for 4k displays...heh...apple would have to up the anté a bit in the gfx card department first...*****..the company is barely offering couple of year old gfx cards at dirty prices.Apple would offer 4k capable cards maybe in 2019.
Maybe.

 

[djellison]

Brilliant - Now Apple can sell LP-USB, LP-FW, LP-DVI, LP-VGA, LP-DLDVI adaptors at £20 -> £70 each to rip us all off a little bit more.

 

[wizard]

There is a huge difference between a bad idea and a bad iMplementation.

Be afraid...

No just hope that Apple does a better engineering job along with their connector suppliers.

I've seen iMacs whose defective FireWire ports burned out camcorder FW ports (Rev C iMacs), defective cables or bad enclosures burning out Mac's FW ports.

What you fail to realize is that the power leads would be the only thing capable of carying power. Thus you can't short high voltage to signal lines. As to the actual power lines even those can be protected from shorts.

As long as the power is kept very low (maybe just enough for USB hard drives), we shouldn't have a problem. Power over FireWire has always been a very bad idea.

it was never a bad idea, just bad implementation. The fact is Firewire instigated many other power over xxx implementations. For example POE for one. The problem with the USB approach is the low voltage which limits power and distance.

Some how though I don't think this is a huge issue in Apples plans. I suspect that most devices will be self powered and fairly substantial. There is a lot of talk about getting rid of USB but I don't see that as Apples goal. Somethings just work well and don't need replacing.


Dave

 

[Flybye]

About damn time. I told myself this like 10yrs ago. "Why can't they make 1 data cable that supports everything and you can use it to connect to any port on the motherboard."

I failed, again. In the mid 90s, I saw some acrylic display box in a store and said to myself "Hmm, I bet that would make a really cool computer box." And look what happened in the late 90s. Transparent cases and acrylic computers starting comping up. I really need to start cashing in on my ideas!

 

[NintendoFan]

Optical certainly has its advantages in regards to bandwidth and noise immunity.

I'd be concerned about the durability and flexibility of the cables for portable use. Even if the cable can withstand repeated bending without breaking, a kink or sharp bend can stop the internal reflection (i.e. no light gets through). The Average Joe is not going to coil an optical cable neatly. He would fold it and knot it just like he would for every copper cable he has. He would then wonder why it suddenly quit working.



My guess would be that the cable would also contain two copper wires to supply +5V and GND.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUBRjiVhJTs

 

[*LTD*]

About damn time. I told myself this like 10yrs ago. "Why can't they make 1 data cable that supports everything and you can use it to connect to any port on the motherboard."

I failed, again. In the mid 90s, I saw some acrylic display box in a store and said to myself "Hmm, I bet that would make a really cool computer box." And look what happened in the late 90s. Transparent cases and acrylic computers starting comping up. I really need to start cashing in on my ideas!

Patent them first. And when the competition finally implements them, bill 'em!

 

[philipt42]

This would be so awesome for those of us who work with recording - hot pluggable, 10Gb/s rate = extremely high definition music. If they could replace firewire with this, it would just be...amazing.

 

[wizard]

Filled with negativity today?

Like: "3D-4k-display which needs 12bit colors @ 200Hz (4096x2160x3x12x200)=63Gb/s"

Call me old fashion but high bit depth and high refresh rates never came to mind. Niether did 3D for that matter.

Sata is dead? Sata3 is 6Gb and available now. LP isn't available for years.
If you need fast storage now or next year, which would you choose?

Yep completely dead. Look at it this way if you needed truly high speed is SS storage which interface would you choose, SATA or PCI Express. Even the low end netbook manufactures have seen the light here.

SATA is a legacy port that has been stretched beyond an acceptable extent.

Every other company than Apple knows this as eSata & iSCSI.

Yes in a sense, even Drobo has adopted iSCSI.

Nothing new here. You can use multi lane eSata and 16 lane pci express v3 delivers 16GB/s which is 128 Gb/s. LP will reach this, ummm, let's say year 2020?

Yeah that is all well and good but how far can you run those 128Gb/s PCI signals? Or for that matter the eSATA signals. The only thing that really comes close would be iSCSI. The reality is that both PCI and eSATA is crap for anything outside of the PCs box. Please don't try to convince me that eSATA was ever a good idea, it just isn't.

In anyevent it looks like those Light Peak connectors can support more that one channel which implies that two 10Gb/s channels. Even if that is not the case we are still 10 times faster than most current iSCSI implementations.



Dave

 

[subsonix]

It would be great IMO if all connectors could be replaced with one single highly capable general purpose connector.

 

[TheMechanic]

Well, I work entirely off the Cloud. I've got my entire Documents folder (~1,200 items) on my iDisk (of which there is a local copy on my desktop.) I've got a shortcut to my Documents folder in the Dock as well as the Finder sidebar. Whenever I work on a document the changes are uploaded automatically. I can work on my papers from anywhere in the world, and from any device, depending on its capabilities.

A bit off-topic, but how do you maintain an up-to-date copy of your iDisk on your local computer? Do you do it manually or automatically?
I'm interested in doing this my self, but I don't feel like paying for some kind of software for the syncing.

 

[hottyson]

Bold and smart move by Apple. They already have a stake in the music distribution business and are gaining control of that market.

Now is Apples move into the HD video market. Light Peak is one step to assist the elimination of Blu-ray. Video on disc media is so 1980's. We have moved away from /retrieve disc from storage case/eject/place disc on tray/load/press play. Media is much more convenient at your finger tip when you just point and click. Who will need Netflix or even Wal-mart if DRM free high quality media can be quickly downloaded from Apple via Light Peak?

The future is fiber and wireless. Light Peak is part of the Apple strategic plan to dominate everything that is not wireless. Other legacy connectors are dying. Hulu variants are replacing cable tv, so give me Light Peak to finally kill it off. Cellphone replaced plain old telephone lines so give me Light Peak to kill of the legacy ISP and telecommunication over copper. HDMI has already saturated the market and will take a while to die. However, when video/audio/storage medium/internet/telecommunication/all forms of media have adapted Light Peak, Apple will have made a bundle from just the licensing portion of its use alone. DRM shall also play a role in this. How? We shall have to wait and see.

USB is here to stay. It will remain the copper connection of choice for wired keyboards, mice and flash drives. Copper will not die it will just not be used for everything.

 

[flippo]

ONE port to rule THEM ALL !!!

sorry could not resist this.

 

[Saladinos]

When I heard about LightPeak, "MacBook Air" was my first thought.

By using only one connector on the entire machine (except power obviously), Apple can seriously reduce the size of the machine and expand its abilities. They could then sell a docking station allowing connections to a monitor, USB and FW, Ethernet...etc. Or, knowing Apple and their aversion to docking stations, build one in to the monitor in the same way that they do with the LED cinema display.

Of course, for this to take off, it needs broad industry support. If you want a comprehensive standard that the whole industry will adopt, you're obviously going to want Intel to design it. This is literally what they do every day.

 

[VenusianSky]

It's about time we see advancements in optical cable technology. USB will still be relevant for devices that are USB-powered, but as for data only transmissions, optical and wireless have great advantages.

 

[shawnce]

*cough* tablet *cough* (yeah I cross-posted this to slashdot)

It would be perfect to have a small simple and single connection between a laptop, enhanced iPhone/iPod, or *cough* tablet *cough* and an external display (power would be the only other connection needed, unless the proposed connector contains power pins). The display would contain ports for hardwire networks, USB, firewire, speakers, "web" camera, microphone, eSATA, etc. (much like Apple's and others current display products).

This would be Apple's answer to docking stations that often have rather large fixed connector(s) in slots on the bottom side of a laptop. Having a USB like connector gives you more use case coverage then the docking connector solutions currently and could be used by many more form factors other then just laptops.

I am fairly sure this is Apple's main goal with a secondary goal being the following...

As time passed USB, firewire, etc. - assuming adoption - could be replaced by this technology so you would get displays/hubs for this technology... all working with a single connector/cable type (likely will need mini variants). Storage devices, video cameras, video devices, audio devices, and sync targets like MP3 players, etc. would be perfect candidates to switch to this (assuming power and cost budgets make sense).

By using an optical connector you can get longer distances and higher-data rates (100Gb is already in the plans). Also many more options to improve throughput, etc. as optical transceiver/coder/router technologies improve without having to create new connector types.

If the communication technology used inherits and expands on FireWire... a single connector could mux several independent streams of data, including timing sensitive streams with low CPU overhead (later obviously would be needed at the data rates being talked about).

 

[DaBrain]

Haha, I was just thinking of that. Just color code them :]

Or just label them Like LP1, LP2 etc... or Label them by Device if we so wish! Pretty simple solution. I would love to see this come out soon.

Some may ask why do this as their all the same? True. However, for those that bundle and tie wrap all their cables together it would help identify the ends of the LP cable, what device is connected to it for clarity. Ya never know perhaps your dog or what ever chews through a cable and you want to identify that one in the bundle! Yuk! Yuk?! Yuk!

 

[Saladinos]

Bold and smart move by Apple. They already have a stake in the music distribution business and are gaining control of that market.

Now is Apples move into the HD video market. Light Peak is one step to assist the elimination of Blu-ray. Video on disc media is so 1980's. We have moved away from /retrieve disc from storage case/eject/place disc on tray/load/press play. Media is much more convenient at your finger tip when you just point and click. Who will need Netflix or even Wal-mart if DRM free high quality media can be quickly downloaded from Apple via Light Peak?

The future is fiber and wireless. Light Peak is part of the Apple strategic plan to dominate everything that is not wireless. Other legacy connectors are dying. Hulu variants are replacing cable tv, so give me Light Peak to finally kill it off. Cellphone replaced plain old telephone lines so give me Light Peak to kill of the legacy ISP and telecommunication over copper. HDMI has already saturated the market and will take a while to die. However, when video/audio/storage medium/internet/telecommunication/all forms of media have adapted Light Peak, Apple will have made a bundle from just the licensing portion of its use alone. DRM shall also play a role in this. How? We shall have to wait and see.

USB is here to stay. It will remain the copper connection of choice for wired keyboards, mice and flash drives. Copper will not die it will just not be used for everything.

You seriously don't understand this stuff, do you?

 

[*LTD*]

A bit off-topic, but how do you maintain an up-to-date copy of your iDisk on your local computer? Do you do it manually or automatically?
I'm interested in doing this my self, but I don't feel like paying for some kind of software for the syncing.

Choosing automatic syncing puts a local copy on your desktop. I just put symbolic links to it. Does that answer your question?

 

[shawnce]

Who will need Netflix or even Wal-mart if DRM free high quality media can be quickly downloaded from Apple via Light Peak?

Light Peak is not about long haul network connectivity. It is about a local interconnect between devices with enough bi-directional bandwidth to allow single connections to support a large number of input/output devices.

Fiber has/is/will be available to the home (or fiber like speeds) for network connectivity with data rates more then sufficient to pull down BD level content at greater then realtime speeds. Apple wont be the one doing this, Apple wont control this, and Apple wont be the only one able to leverage these faster data pipes into our homes.

..so what you posted doesn't make much sense, at least not the way you stated it.

 

[Evangelion]

Translated: ANOTHER type of apple display connector to replace the display miniport.

which replaced DVI.

Which replaced the apple cinema connector.

Anyone who thinks that this is just another display connector, is a simpleton. Yes, this can replace DVI or DisplayPort. But at the same time this can also replace FireWire, USB and host of other ports as well. Instead of having USB-ports, DP-port, FW-port etc., you could just have four LP-connectors. Having "generic" connectors like that would make the system a lot more flexible. You could plug several screens to the machine, or if you have no need for extra screens, you could then plug lots of peripherals instead.

 

[klagreca]

LP mice?

So you're telling me you're going to connect a mouse to an LP connector? The optical converting chip alone is going to drive up the cost of cheap hardware, where the cheapest mouse is going to start at $45.

And if you have a Macbook Air or a tablet with one LP connector, you've used up that one port for a mouse. You'll have to buy a $75 LP hub, and hope the one pipe going to the hub doesn't become a bottleneck when you have 2 or 3 data-intensive devices hooked up to the hub.

..just some thoughts.

K

 

[CrackedButter]

Looks pretty cool although I imagine this will be available to all OEMs that Intel deal with since its their tech not Apple's.

Proof that one does not read the article. It's Apple's tech.

Brilliant - Now Apple can sell LP-USB, LP-FW, LP-DVI, LP-VGA, LP-DLDVI adaptors at £20 -> £70 each to rip us all off a little bit more.

With it being an open standard you can buy the needed cables off somebody else OR don't buy them, because nobody said you had to. Your view is also very dim if you see no value in this technology or does everybody just want to moan these days.

Cool new tech comes out >>> bitch about how it costs.

I'm personally surprised it is coming out next year, I was going to upgrade next year as well!

 

[shawnce]

So you're telling me you're going to connect a mouse to an LP connector?

Of course not... something like USB isn't going away anytime soon for low data rate / low cost devices...

This is - first - about providing a single connector that can transfer 10Gb (in both directions simultaneously, full-duplex). This would be used to connect a laptop or similar device to something like a display (or other breakout device). This display/breakout device would contain ports for current bus technologies. No other connection between computer and display would be needed. All other items would connect to the display including hardwire networking. ...everything would be muxed over this single connector.

Also it is possible that that a LP connector could contain USB pins, power pins, and the bi-directional optical channels. This would allow something like a mouse to ignore the optical aspect of the connector (cable would only contain wires for USB / power) and hence the costs involved. Not sure if they will go that route or simply continue to provide an independent USB connector for low-bandwidth / legacy devices (aka MBA would have one USB and one LP connector). ...basically much like how the 1/8 audio port on Apple's devices also contains an optical connection in addition to the traditional electrical rings (the cable / device used picks what type of connection it wants).

...don't ignore wireless technologies possibly becoming the primary connection for things like keyboards and mice.


(Of all the possible technologies holding up the release of an Apple tablet... this would be a good candidate.)

 

[scott911]

hope they learn from past - reversability of usb (although present connector looks square as well) and hdmi port fatigue.

 

[SAN66]

IPhone?

Might we see this in future generations of the iPhone? Much quicker transfer and updates, tethering through light peak.

Well except in Europe where Apple signed on to standardization of micro-usb connections.