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

So we just avoided a sandy bridge SATA disaster and now talk of adopting a yet untried and untested commercially input device, which has not even got any external hardware that supports it ?

Just do not see this in a MBP refresh yet.

Maybe later in the year for a new MacPro 'maybe'...
 
Mr. Retrofire said:
LP is still in development. You can expect first LP-products in 2015. Intel plans to upgrade LP until 2020 to 100 GBit/s.

However, LP will be useless for all people who can not afford high speed, expensive external SSDs. Other uses of LP require a broad support, which is unlikely in the next few years. I think Apple will first integrate USB 3.0, then 2016 or 2017 LP.
Click to expand...

did you read what steve jobs said about USB 3.0?
 
183 comments and nobody has mentioned the actual design of the connector sucks.

It's a symmetrical casing with a asymmetrical connector.

Hello bad design, you have to look at it constantly to know which way you're going to plug it in.

Why can't it be asymmetrical like firewire 400?

That was the best port design ever, you didn't need to look at the cable when plugging it in!
 
You think LightPeak technology is fast enough to work effectively with SSD drives?

What Im thinking about is iMac with SSD + Time Capsule with SSD = much faster backup every hour.

The only thing is connection between mac and time capsule - if its too slow, there is no sense for SSD in time capsule, so Im thinking if LightPeak is finally fast enough ??
 
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felixmanos said:
holmesf said:
You're forgetting that the read/write speed on the flash storage of iDevices is about 2x slower than USB 2.0 transfer rate, so such upgrades would not yield any benefit for this type of transfer.
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The latest SSDs are faster than SATA3 now. It's really stupid to go backwards unless you're in the Tea Party. If that's true, then no speed is slow enough to make you feel secure. '-)
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The Tea Party represents progress in a way that far out strips the current administration. Anybody that offers to back a teachers union is by definition against progress.

As to wired devices it will be a very long time before the disappear. When speaking of LightPeak though, the term "wire" seems out of place. LightPeak has great potential but in the end it will be judged by the quality of the connectors.

This is actually my greatest concern when it comes to LightPeak, the quality of the connectors will make or break the port. I'm not sure how Apple will over come this. My experience with optics is that the connectors are extremely important to correct function. A bit of dust or other material and you end up with all sorts of issues.

Worst here is that Apple history with connectors is pretty bad. Fire wire is a joke for one. So if the connector is a critical component of an optical connection and Apples history here sucks, one has to be very conservative in adopting LightPeak. If it works and is reliable I'd expect rapid adoption as previously stated nothing else would come close.
 
wizard said:
Worst here is that Apple history with connectors is pretty bad. Fire wire is a joke for one.
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Please elaborate. I've never had any problems, though I don't really plug/unplug my stuff more than about once a week.

I've found FW400 and USB to have nice, positive clicking insertion. FW800 is also good, but doesn't feel as nice to plug in as FW400.

What problems have you had, out of curiosity?
 
I wonder if we'll see a 2011 Mac Pro with perhaps just a spec bump over the 2010 Mac Pro, but with Light Peak as the key addition?
 
miles01110 said:
If my USB cable breaks, I can still use my Mini-Display port cable, my Firewire cable, and my ethernet cable because they are not broken. Therefore, I am still able to use my external monitor, external hard drive(s), and internet connection.
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If you currently have a USB cable, an MDP cable, a FW cable, and an EN cable...
you can replace those 4 cables with just 2 LP cables - one LP for regular use
and one for backup. Then, if your regular LP cable breaks, using the backup
restores FULL functionality. All this with 2 fewer cables to lug around and more
internal space in your MBP which can (a) further lighten the load, or (b) add
extra functionality (e.g., bigger battery).
 
MB/MBP differentiation

With all these rumored upgrades to the MBP it seems like Apple is setting up some clear and definable ways to differentiate the MB and MBP lines.

Since I am in the market for a MBP, and willing to pay for the premium features, these rumors are exciting.
 
johneaston said:
What's the point in upgrading for Light Peak when no peripherals, as yet, actually use it?
Click to expand...

Futureproofing and transition. When Apple adds LP to MBP, they won't
immediately remove USB/FW/MDP or Ethernet. As LP peripherals become
mainstream, you'll clamor for Apple to remove those useless old ports.
 
I really hope that it gets adopted, since all the ports in apple hardware are dog slow. Time machine backups are damn slow trough usb 2.0. My old hp had esata and that has in 2008..
 
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Replacing all those types of connectors with LP would be great (especially if the port is directly backwards compatible with USB 1,2,3 and that adaptors could be used for other technology in a transitional process. I brought out an old HP laptop to look at it's connectors, and there are 14 different connectors on it that would all be replaceable with a couple LP connectors. That was ten years ago, and despite the adoption of USB, my three Y/O HP laptop has 13! different data connections (this is excluding power and including optical drive, 3.5mm jacks, VGA, docking port, card slots Ethernet and USB, FireWire, paralell ports etc.) thats a lot of dirlfferent connections
 
As usual lots of hype from everyone including me, so we're looking at a quad core, core i7 sandy bridge, wafer thin with dual SSD's, high res lcd with high spec gpu oh and light peak?

Light peak is several generations of laptop releases away from being used by any major notebook manufacturer. 2014-15 realistically. Apple do not have a great record for using the absolute latest technology in their macbook pro's. Strictly the GPU in the current MBP was out of date before the last refresh, Core's 2 still in several of their products.

Personally think we'll see a CPU bump, update to the GPU, a redesigned unibody that will also allow the 13" to move to core i3. I'd be pretty pleased with that. On the 13" I'd expect to see the MBA 1440x900 display adopted.
 
wizard said:
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The Tea Party represents progress in a way that far out strips the current administration. Anybody that offers to back a teachers union is by definition against progress.
Click to expand...

Your forward is my backward. Killing the middle class will hurt a whole lot of companies, including Apple, as people are unable to purchase their hardware. Look who is behind the tea party movement. The Koch brothers don't want to help you, they want to help themselves.

So, back to reality: Light peak isn't out yet. The biggest problem with fiber has always been cost and second is reliability of the connectors. To make a connector that can survive in 'the real world' with multiple connect/disconnect cycles is going to be a hard thing to pull off. The internal connectors that I've seen so far also look pretty fragile.

I don't have experience with fiber channel but the cards and the cables are expensive and so far the devices are very expensive large disk arrays. There is a fiber channel card available, or was, for the xserve.

I use fiber cables for audio, like may others do I'm sure, and have only broken one cable but if this light peak evolves into a 'love all serve all' connector system, then it will surely suck if the port or the cable breaks.

There is also the very real potential for dust and grime to attenuate the amount of light to come through the connector(s).

It is for those reasons that I don't see light peak fiber optic connectivity being used in a big way in anything close to being a notebook. Well, unless people that use it are prepared to replace broken cables and unless Intel or a third party comes up with methods to clean and maintain the connector parts... Plus the connector has to be sturdy enough to withstand the potential of the notebook being dropped or something tripping on the cable.

I have sold many people on a MBP just based on the magsafe power connector. Let someone lose a notebook because something pulls it off a surface and break on the floor to get a convert.

But yes, it is very true that there won't be devices if there isn't a connector out there but waiting a year or more for devices for that fantastic new connector is going to be a long wait.
 
lightpeak using a connector retrocompatible with usb 2.0 and usb 3.0 and esata? :D

that would be a killer!

and please make the bd drive available! and adopt some high end graphics card in the 17" model
 
miles01110 said:
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.
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This is why no one single standard will satisfy all requirements:

Low cost
Reliable
High Bandwidth
Low Power
Variable Range (1000Mbps Ethernet is perfectly reliable over 100m - 802.11n *is not*)
Low latency

Nothing can cover all those bases.Arguably not all consumers need all of those at the same time, but then we're back to a plethora of standards, and ports...

In my apartment I now use a wired ethernet connection, because the 2.4GHz band is so congested with 30+ competing networks...
 
wizard said:
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Anybody that offers to back a teachers union is by definition against progress.
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sorry could you explain this to a dumb foreigner?
why is backing a teacher's union against progress?
 
iEdd said:
Please elaborate. I've never had any problems, though I don't really plug/unplug my stuff more than about once a week.

I've found FW400 and USB to have nice, positive clicking insertion. FW800 is also good, but doesn't feel as nice to plug in as FW400.

What problems have you had, out of curiosity?
Click to expand...

The fact that Apple can't decide whether they're supporting FW or not is the biggest problem - right now I need to get an external audio interface. I would like to get a FW one, but am afraid that next round of Macs/Macbooks Apple with have quietly dropped FW support from everything, except maybe the 17" models...
 
I can only see this as good news!

Why? No more having to use umpteenmillion different types of cable for different devices. Why is it that in this day and age we have HDMI, DVI, VGA, USB, DisplayPort, Firewire, etc when LightPeak can provide a single connector for all of these, plus more!

Its a fantastic idea/innovation.

For those who said 'why bother, wireless is better' - you couldnt be more wrong. Wireless has effectively hit its limits for now. 802.11n is about as fast as its going to get, and without broad empty spectrums, there's little room for expansion.

In addition, wireless performance can vary HUGELY. For example, in my house (standard 4-bed, avg size) we have an awful time with wireless connectivity. You can sit on top of our router and still only get 1 bar. Why? Major interfierance! In my local area, you'll be able to pick up at least 30 private wireless networks at a time. Because of this, we all suffer greatly. We've resorted to using homeplugs as we can get a solid, stable 200mbps vs around 40-60mbps over 802.11n 5Ghz.

So, lightpeak would obviously prove to be much more beneficial over even more wireless devices. Would you really want your 1080p HD TV connected up to your mac through wireless? What are the chances of 'no signal' messages popping up every time someone turns the microwave on :rolleyes:


EDIT: Dont forget that it will probably be possible to plug in your existing firewire/hdmi/dvi/usb/etc with the use of a cheap adaptor!
 
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