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

illegallydead said:
You must not have read the article. LP has a distance maximum. It is meant for local (in-house) connections. Telecoms are already using fibre-optic connections and have been for years (due to scalablity: same fibre can trasmit as much as the back-end tech can deliver it. You WILL NOT be getting LP from your telecom. Not to mention servers have been and always will be the bottleneck. No matter how fast you hook-up, joe-shmoes website cannot push info down the pipe to millions of people that fast.



Dude, what? :rolleyes: You realize that the US uses DC for most of it's long-distance transmission lines, right? I imagine your turbine doesn't kick out high enough voltages or something; DC transmission done right is very very good for very long distances. We use AC power because it was marketed better way way back in the day.

Anyway, back on topic, if this is to take off, I imagine that they will throw a copper pair in there for power needs. Constraining it to powered devices would only hinder its take-off as a do-all-end-all cable. Why exactly is it (copper) not economical? Copper is dirt cheap (for now, granted), glass for the fibre is relatively dirt cheap. There shouldn't be any reason why running the two together would be a problem. One is infrared optical, one is DC electrical. They should have no reason to interfere with one another.
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What, what?

AC domenated becasue it was at the time the only cost effective way to up the voltages.

It wasnt untill the late '40s that the arc valves were reliable enough for the voltages required for DC long distance trasnmission,
 
jaw04005 said:
At face value, it sounds more like a reincarnated ADC (Apple Display Connector) than a replacement for USB.
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It will be used in part for the same (as they were showing in the demo) but ADC was only for displays. This new technology could be used to connect anything not just displays.

jaw04005 said:
The big question is why is Intel promoting USB 3.0 if they have Light Peak coming around the corner (2010).
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Who knows. Maybe they don't want to put all their eggs in the same basket.

jaw04005 said:
And why did Apple (who has never been afraid to develop a new standard) have Intel develop it?

Somehow this story doesn’t add up.
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Why not? Intel is one of the biggest players in this industry with enough influence to push this kind of thing. With them behind this it only makes it easier for Apple to get what they want.
 
iVoid said:
Sounds nice.

It would still need at least two copper wires to supply power to devices without their own power plugs. Only way to get power through optical would be to have little solar cells on the end. :)
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Well, they are probably using photodiodes already for the detection, which generate a current based on the incident light. The power will be too low though I'm sure.
 
I think I'll make my next desktop purchase when this comes out. :)

I remember finally replacing my first computer when someone bought me a printer and I couldn't use it since it only used USB. I thought it was amazing when a large, ugly port with those little screw caps was replaced by something so sleek and easy to use.
Now there's going to be a port that can potentially replace all others? Awesome.
 
illegallydead said:
You must not have read the article. LP has a distance maximum. It is meant for local (in-house) connections.
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I read the article. I was talking for local in house connection. Light Peak would make live streaming of HD possible. Software DRM intertwined in the streaming of video (encryption) is my prediction for Apple future movie rental buisness. A hiccup free rental of a motion picture is not currently possible at affordable cable modem speeds.

DRM in a cable such as HDMI is a joke. It will surely die as it does not stop pirating of any movie what so ever.
 
hottyson said:
I read the article. I was talking for local in house connection. Light Peak would make live streaming of HD possible. Software DRM intertwined streaming video is my prediction for Apple future movie rental buisness. A hiccup free rental of a motion picture is not currently possible at affordable cable modem speeds.
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As illegally dead said, you don't get the article. "local in house" does not mean you get a faster internet connection. It's local.

[Edit: Honk at me when you get an internet connection in excess of 1000Mb/sec./1Gb/sec Honk twice, if you can get an internet connection six times that - even DL only - in the near future in a town near you]

hottyson said:
DRM in a cable such as HDMI is a joke. It will surely die as it does not stop pirating of any movie what so ever.
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What makes you think there won't be any DRM incorporated into the protocol of LP?
 
Why would anybody be confused by all the connectors looking the same? "Plug it in, it just works!" Much better than USB, FW400, FW800, DVI, HDMI, eSATA, SPDIF, etc.
 
bigwig said:
Why would anybody be confused by all the connectors looking the same? "Plug it in, it just works!" Much better than USB, FW400, FW800, DVI, HDMI, eSATA, SPDIF, etc.
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Nothing to be confused about. However, the dongles will kill me, utterly negating most of the benefits for me as an end-user.
 
Pocket lint said:
Nothing to be confused about. However, the dongles will kill me, utterly negating most of the benefits for me as an end-user.
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Unfortunately, people are unwilling to get rid of legacy devices, in many cases, they have many. You can keep legacy ports easier on desktops, but thats much harder on laptops. Thats why you have dongles - many times you cannot get a single wire to do the job and keeping legacy ports around only encourages their continued use by device makers.
 
pdjudd said:
Unfortunately, people are unwilling to get rid of legacy devices, in many cases, they have many. You can keep legacy ports easier on desktops, but thats much harder on laptops. Thats why you have dongles - many times you cannot get a single wire to do the job and keeping legacy ports around only encourages their continued use by device makers.
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Again, that just means I won't be buying a computer without "legacy" ports. The thing is, most of my equipment cost way more than a computer. If I cannot connect my equipment I need to make my living, I'll simply buy another computer.
It's not about a lack of "willingness" to switch, it's about getting the job done. If I don't have the connectivity I can't make money.

Only lowest common denominator consumers won't have this problem. To them, as long as they can connect their iPhone/iPod, they couldn't care less.
It doesn't matter either that they for a while cannot connect their stuff, they'll wait, and in the meantime use a dongle (if so available).

Of course, that's all fine and well, but I'm not going to go out and buy consumer grade tools to do my job, simply because Apple et al tries to force my hand. That will loose me my job.
 
This sounds like an awesome option. Hopefully Apple and Intel are already talking with manufacturers about using this connection type in the future. Preferably the relatively soon future...before USB3 plagues the market.
 
Pocket lint said:
Sweet :D

Including a fancy metallic box, 2x3 inches, to house the optical-to-coaxial hardware plus an optional wallwart to add 5 volt power to it. It's damn pure joy, I tells ya.
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I just hope the fancy metallic box has awesome blinking lights !
 
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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