Apple to Introduce Light Peak (High Speed Connection Technology) Soon?

[fabianjj]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; sv-se) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148a Safari/6533.18.5)...Technology is no where close to the point at which all wired data connections can be replaced with wireless. In fact, there is no reason to assume that will ever be the case. Would it really make sense to have a set top box sitting on top of a TV in every room of every house wirelessly transmitting 2160p 120fps 3D TV and 5 channel surround sound to the TV 24 hours a day when a two foot cable would do the job just fine? There isn't that much bandwidth in the world...

It may be worth recognizing that in nature practically every piece of information that is transmitted between two energy sources or living organisms that are separated by either air or space is done so without the aid of wires. Thus, I hardly think that your statement about there not being "that much bandwidth in the world" is supported by the examples given by our universe.

Beside that, your "two foot cable" scenario ignores the more important fact that most "smart" devices in the future are going to have to interconnect with multiple devices (i.e. everything connected) which is a little difficult to do with just wires.

In any case, as I've said before, wires are not going away within the next decade, but their days are probably numbered.

Indeed, all we need for that to work just as good as in nature is for someone to invent the fully biological computer

 

[axual]

Perhaps Apple will be the first to adopt a major “new” technology this time?

Yes, they have been very timid to do this in the past.

 

[Tshapi]

So how would mobile users attach things?

I could see Apple making a MagSafe + LightPeak Hub that was small enough to sit on your desk and provide loads of ports, but they won't put it into the actual power adaptor that might not be in use all the time (it's a laptop!).

http://www.appleinsider.com/article...le_tablet_magsafe_optical_data_connector.html

the bottom patent. talks about a magsafe data connector.

 

[Tshapi]

This is the wording from that Appleinsider.com article i posted above.

One cable to rule them all

In another patent awarded Tuesday, Apple seeks to reduce the number of cables connected to a laptop device to a single connector that would provide both a power and data connection.

One drawing of the invention depicts what appears to be a MagSafe-like connector attached to a "power and data adapter" with optical, USB, Ethernet, and DVI ports. The adapter would function as both a power brick and a port hub.



Another drawing features a MagSafe connector that splits off into a fiber optic cable with a data adapter and a DC power cable with a power transformer.




The patent could be a first look at Apple's planned implementation of Intel's Light Peak optical cable technology. Intel is reportedly readying Light Peak for an early 2011 release, and Apple is expected to quickly incorporate the technology into its Mac line of computers.

Intel claims Light Peak has a bandwidth of 10Gbps and will scale up to 100Gbps over the next decade. "Optical technology also allows for smaller connectors and longer, thinner, and more flexible cables than currently possible," states Intel on its website.

Apple early on expressed heavy interest in Light Peak, "pushing" Intel to bring it to market. The cabling technology likely appeals to Apple because it would allow the company to roll networking, display, and peripheral cables into one master cable. Tuesday's patent reveals that the Cupertino, Calif., company is attempting to go one step further and bundle an optical cable with a power cable for an even more elegant solution.

 

[aCondor]

Existing technology on the wired side is more than adequate for Apple's target market.

There's better technology available - why not use it? As soon as a company begins to say "Ehh... what the customer has is already more than adequate for their needs" it will start to lose market share. Let me decide what I will or won't use - just give me the best technology available... especially when I'm willing to pay $2,000 for a laptop.

 

[smithrh]

B
What wireless channel are you using? If most of your neighbors are using the default of channel 6 (in the US at least) you can get much better reception by switching to channel 1 or channel 11. (The channels overlap - so moving to channel 5 from channel 6 would only be a small improvement. The top, bottom and middle channels don't have significant overlap.)

The better solution is to migrate to 5Ghz, which Apple is very good at supporting.

I'm in the same boat as rmwebs; too many APs on top of me, my 2.4Ghz wifi experience was barely acceptable to poor or even unusable before I went to 5Ghz, now everything is excellent.

 

[polaris20]

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Looks like I'm upgrading soon =D

Edit: what are the transfer speeds like with lightpeak?

Starts at 10Gbps, scales to 100Gbps.

Honestly, why even bother with wired technology at this point? Apple has already made their bed in the consumer arena, and the future of consumer electronics is wireless.

Which wireless technology works with monitors, hard drives, and other peripherals while transferring data with low latency @ 10Gbps?

Not to the average consumer. Sending a word document to a laser printer will not save you any time whether it's Light Peak or USB 1.0. Existing technology on the wired side is more than adequate for Apple's target market.

Right, because all we do with our computers is sync our iPhones and print.

Apple doesn't care about syncing speeds with wired connections for iDevices. The original iPod synced via Firewire, but they later removed support for it altogether in favor of USB2. It's been USB2 only for years.

Clearly it's not about speed.

What about them? Anyone who has an actual need to move mass amounts of data probably isn't in Apple's target market anyways. On the video side, Firewire is well entrenched as the connection of choice anyways.

Right, why would we want 10Gbps Light Peak for moving around 1080p data found in consumer camcorders when we can have 800Mbps or 480Mbps?

 

[louis Fashion]

Perhaps Apple will be the first to adopt a major “new” technology this time?

Quite right. AAPL must look to the cutting edge if they are going to gain market share.

 

[nunes013]

if macbook pros were launching this thursday wouldnt apple have already sent out an invitation for an event. first i know that they normally dont for computer refreshes unless they get a new design. however lightpeak is kind of a big deal so wouldnt they likely make it part of an event to show what it is about. either that or they are not launching in the 2011 mbp and going first into the mac pros this summer. im not sure if apple would even announce a new high speed transfer technology at an event so dont go on and flame me.

 

[FX120]

Lightpeak won't be fast enough at release to act as as desktop bus unless external display resolutions are severely restricted. Displayport currently has twice the bandwidth of 1st gen lightpeak on its own.

 

[Keziski]

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Light peak inclusion in the new MBP would be superb

 

[thedarkhorse]

If they do lightpeak I still hope they go to usb 3.0 as well. There's no way they can just drop USB from their products in the near future as 99.999% peripherals will not support the new lightpeak for a while until it is established, so why not move it up to 3.0? It's backwards compatible with all 2.0 stuff and the chipsets are now there to support it and physically it would be the same as USB is now, just faster. The nice part about the Universal Serial Bus is the universal part, it will be years before I will be able to take a lightpeak thumb drive and know I can easily plug it into a non 2011+ apple machine, every computer has USB so there is no worry there.

 

[Tshapi]

If they do lightpeak I still hope they go to usb 3.0 as well. There's no way they can just drop USB from their products in the near future as 99.999% peripherals will not support the new lightpeak for a while until it is established, so why not move it up to 3.0? It's backwards compatible with all 2.0 stuff and the chipsets are now there to support it and physically it would be the same as USB is now, just faster. The nice part about the Universal Serial Bus is the universal part, it will be years before I will be able to take a lightpeak thumb drive and know I can easily plug it into a non 2011+ apple machine, every computer has USB so there is no worry there.

light peak automatically supports USB 2 AND USB 3. Intel is trying to use the same USB style connector so that way its already compatible.


but light peak isnt about that. its about the ability to ultimatly use one type of connector for all your devices. imagine being able to use a single cord type between your comp and monitor or dvd external or for any usb type device or for ethernet or for pretty much anything.

 

[ciTiger]

What are the odds of this being present in the upcoming MBPs refresh?

 

[Tower-Union]

What are the odds of this being present in the upcoming MBPs refresh?

Does it really matter? Now,

 

[iooi]

The use of an (enhanced) USB Plug for this is an abomination

There are several reasons for this:

• First, for that square USB-plug there's always a 50/50 chance you try to plug it the wrong way around at your first try.
• Second, the USB-system has the tongues/springs* at the motherboard while firewire has the tongues/springs at the cable's plug. So if those tongues/springs get worn out you just replace the cable if you're on firewire while if you're on USB have to change the motherboard
• Firewire allows for way more eletrical energy to be transfered compared to USB. I am not sure if the plug and socket system of USB is a cause for this. I hope not otherwise LightPeak would have the same shortcomings like USB powerwise.

)* english is not my mother tongue, so what would be the right word for those little resilient metal elements that ensure the contact in a plug and socket combination?

 

[neko girl]

Pair this technology with magsafe, and Apple has itself a winner.

 

[steveh]

Unfortunately, fibre optic cables don't provide power either. The technology itself it based on light.

Which is why Intel is working on optical Light Peak with a coaxial conductor parallel to the optical fibre to provide power.

 

[janstett]

Color me skeptical. Apple has been ignoring new technology for a few years (Blu-Ray, eSATA, USB3, HDMI, multichannel audio, deep color, still uses Core 2 Duo in half the Mac lineup, video cards on the Mac Pro are years out of date).

 

[steveh]

it's going to be some dumb i name. iWire? I'm not sure why Apple constantly needs to rebrand what other people have done and make it their own. What's wrong with USB 3.0? Is that a big bag of hurt too, $teve Job$? Will the "engineers" be more free to do as they please once Steve is completely out of the picture? Craziness.

Yeah, Apple sure has a weird name for USB 2, ...

Wait. What?

OK, then their name for FireWire (the IEEE.1394 standard came later)... Wait. It was Sony that dubbed it iLink. And Apple did the initial development of FireWire, bringing TI in early on.

What exactly were you thinking of, connectionwise?

 

[janstett]

light peak automatically supports USB 2 AND USB 3. Intel is trying to use the same USB style connector so that way its already compatible.


but light peak isnt about that. its about the ability to ultimatly use one type of connector for all your devices. imagine being able to use a single cord type between your comp and monitor or dvd external or for any usb type device or for ethernet or for pretty much anything.

Didn't they used to say that about firewire too? I remember some TVs with FireWire connectivity.

 

[steveh]

uhh eliminating all ports on the actual computer is ridiculous. how would mobile users attach peripherals?

Through the updated MagSafe type connector.

 

[steveh]

that people speculate about what Apple is going to do with LightPeak in light of the fact that they have nothing to do with the development of this technology. Intel is developing LightPeak.

If you think that Intel is developing LP without close cooperation from one or more of their biggest customers, well...

 

[steveh]

What's the point in upgrading for Light Peak when no peripherals, as yet, actually use it?

That's why LP provides backward compatibility for things like FireWire, USB, etc.

 

[lPHONE]

Bring back Target Disk Mode!