I think it's great that it's actually backwards-compatible with USB 3... the more things sharing one port, the better.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Intel Also Launching 'Light Peak' Thursday
- Thread starter Beige Panda
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I think it's great that it's actually backwards-compatible with USB 3... the more things sharing one port, the better.
Light Peak is supposedly way faster than USB3 - 10 gigabits per second, or to use a speed that's actually relevant to anyone here, 1.25 gigabytes per second. Issue being, this is the speed the fiber optic connection was going to start out at. Issue is that It's not using fiber optic anymore. Sure, the actual speed on plain old copper wires hasn't been reported anywhere yet, but you can bet 100% it's quite a bit less.
Light Peak is better than USB3 only in situations where USB3 is already much faster than you could need or want. It can hypothetically be used for lots of other devices, as long as you don't mind a P.I.T.A. dongle to convert the signal... which will introduce latency... thereby negating whatever advantage might have existed in that department... and also preclude daisy-chaining.
If you ever thought USB3 adoption was slow, wait and see how fast it goes when the potential market share for usage is 9% at the maximum, assuming everyone upgrades their Apple product overnight... not to mention that there will be adapters that make native devices unnecessary. And... native devices... hmm... Good luck finding one that doesn't have a 200% Apple Tax.
how is it any different if we had devices that had LP but no computer to connect them to? Either way, we will have to wait some period of time before each side is compatible. (Unless of course ipad2 has LP and actually is announced next Tuesday)
While it is true that USB 3.0 are on some external drives and such, it still doesn't do anything more for me than 2.0 as none of my comps have 3.0. Speed is still limited to the slowest part of the connection.
Point is, I think LP is more likely to take off with the comps have the connections before peripheral devices.
Last edited:
Those are more than just protocols. Implicitly there are also topologies. Daisy chained doesn't necessary mean same topology ( e.g., firewire target disk mode) . The major problem with Light Peak is that there is the reoccuring, hand waving postulations that it does everything.
At 10GB is can certainly do far slower data transfers because the latency (either hardware, software , or both de/encoding overhead) can be done and still get the data transferred in time.
Intel had a video with some prototype disk enclosure ( western digital) and high end video device.
It wouldn't be surprising if there were some $700-1000 devices at roll out. Nor that this end up getting marketed as "cheaper than 10 (or 40 or 100) GB Ethernet, Fibre Channel, and/or Infiniband" .... as oppose to trying to compete head-to-head with USB 3.0 (which it would likely loose.).
This technology seems way too new for apple to adopt it... i don't it will happen, but who knows...
None, but I think that Intel or Apple will make some sort of support for Light Peak if it arrives, maybe a USB 3.0 hub with multiple ports capable of running at maxium speed?
Intel "Launching Light Peak" is a perfect companion presentation along with Apples announcement.
Why? Because it's hypocritically dressed up as a big deal, when in fact it's a cleverly concealed form of damage control. A tactic first refined by Apple.
Playing on the publics lack of knowledge, this serves Apple well, since they will do what they do best - Brag about how "This Changes Everything".
Second, it will buy time for the woefully sad state of affairs at Intel.
To put it in laymans terms it's like Baskin Robbins trumpeting a fantastic new chocolate flavor, then serving vanilla!
It's called "Light Peak" people! That means Fiber Optics.
Now, years later they're giving us Copper Wire? What a load of crap!
Wow, this is really State Of The Art. Invented by Apple?!
Typical BS, and based on the comments here and in the other thread, the "Apple Faithful" are taking the bait, hook line & sinker!
If Steve says it's great, the followers hang on his every word as he cons them like Jim Jones.
No one fact checks, no one thinks for themselves. Ever!
But worse! They make excuses ! Living in denial they spew venom needlessly.
I can hear the lame excuses already.
No wonder Apples so damn wealthy.
A customer base of blind believers eager to tithe their money to the Church Of Apple.
http://is.gd/FzQNC7
Why? Because it's hypocritically dressed up as a big deal, when in fact it's a cleverly concealed form of damage control. A tactic first refined by Apple.
Playing on the publics lack of knowledge, this serves Apple well, since they will do what they do best - Brag about how "This Changes Everything".
Second, it will buy time for the woefully sad state of affairs at Intel.
To put it in laymans terms it's like Baskin Robbins trumpeting a fantastic new chocolate flavor, then serving vanilla!
It's called "Light Peak" people! That means Fiber Optics.
Now, years later they're giving us Copper Wire? What a load of crap!
Wow, this is really State Of The Art. Invented by Apple?!
Typical BS, and based on the comments here and in the other thread, the "Apple Faithful" are taking the bait, hook line & sinker!
If Steve says it's great, the followers hang on his every word as he cons them like Jim Jones.
No one fact checks, no one thinks for themselves. Ever!
But worse! They make excuses ! Living in denial they spew venom needlessly.
I can hear the lame excuses already.
No wonder Apples so damn wealthy.
A customer base of blind believers eager to tithe their money to the Church Of Apple.
http://is.gd/FzQNC7
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; 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/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)
Although they are giving us copper wire, it still is as fast if not faster than USB3 (If I am correct, it also is compatible with USB3 as well). AND it can use pretty much any protocol be it display or Ethernet or FireWire or what have you.
Although they are giving us copper wire, it still is as fast if not faster than USB3 (If I am correct, it also is compatible with USB3 as well). AND it can use pretty much any protocol be it display or Ethernet or FireWire or what have you.
You seem to have a pretty simplistic view of how something like a major interface gets developed. I don't think that Light Peak is as trivial as you make it out to be.
The rest of your post does seem to have some other suspicious agenda, though.
When one knows the truth, many keep their head in the sand. Those of us long time, loyal Apple enthusiasts, know some ugly truths about this company that double talks it's customers. There is simply no need for it.
And I quote " we've worked hard to build these stores for you".
What kind of BS is that? It's business, pure & simple. They built the flippin stores for their own profit and rightfully so. I'm a major shareholder thrilled with their performance. Just don't be so condescending, treating us like idiots.
ABC / Disney doesn't pull that crap, nor does Chevron, and on and on...
At no time did I say Light Peak is trivial. That comment came from your imagination.
Quiet the contrary. Light Peak is an excellent development kept on the back burner for far too long.
Suspicious agenda? No, just not willing to believe everything they feed us.
Apple didn't get where they are by doing the next right thing as they would have you believe.
I respect your opinion, try respecting mine.
It's amazing how well it works
I'm still very skeptical, have been since day one of the rumors. If Light Peak is used in ANY way on the next MacBook Pros it will probably be part of a redesigned MagSafe connector that will run between the MacBook and a new display from Apple (using the plug as revealed in the earlier Apple patent application). I know, I'm not the first or even the second to have suggested this.
It will be a multi-use data bus between the MacBook and the display -- and that may be it. The MagSafe cable will cary power (from the display) to run and charge the MacBook and also USB (over Light Peak). The display will then have USB ports that connect to your desktop peripherals. The display might also have a Light Peak port so that you could daisy-chain whatever might become available over the next year (probably not much).
Beyond that they may (eventually) carry ethernet, audio, and video so you'd have only one cable running between your MacBook and the Apple display. Of course, this will be an Apple proprietary connector/plug, it won't work with anything other than the new Apple display.
Then, when or if Light Peak gains any significant market share Apple might add a dedicated and standard Light Peak port to their computers. But I really don't expect a industry-standard Light Peak port to be available on the next MacBooks.
P.S. Can we please stop seeing these posts that talk about how much faster backup and sync will be on the iPad 2 now that it will be able to use Light Peak? The slow part of the backup/sync is because the flash memory in the iPad is S-L-O-W, it's not because of any limitation caused by the USB2 transfer. The only way the backup/sync could get faster is if Apple put high-speed flash memory in the next iPad, which would likely cause the price of the iPad to increase rather dramatically (we'll have to wait to see if that happens, but I doubt that it will).
Also, Light Peak is NOT backward compatible with USB2 or USB3 or ethernet (or anything for that matter). It can only carry those protocols, you'll still need a transceiver/converter at the end of the Light Peak cable to allow it to connect to any device that isn't already Light Peak aware.
It will be a multi-use data bus between the MacBook and the display -- and that may be it. The MagSafe cable will cary power (from the display) to run and charge the MacBook and also USB (over Light Peak). The display will then have USB ports that connect to your desktop peripherals. The display might also have a Light Peak port so that you could daisy-chain whatever might become available over the next year (probably not much).
Beyond that they may (eventually) carry ethernet, audio, and video so you'd have only one cable running between your MacBook and the Apple display. Of course, this will be an Apple proprietary connector/plug, it won't work with anything other than the new Apple display.
Then, when or if Light Peak gains any significant market share Apple might add a dedicated and standard Light Peak port to their computers. But I really don't expect a industry-standard Light Peak port to be available on the next MacBooks.
P.S. Can we please stop seeing these posts that talk about how much faster backup and sync will be on the iPad 2 now that it will be able to use Light Peak? The slow part of the backup/sync is because the flash memory in the iPad is S-L-O-W, it's not because of any limitation caused by the USB2 transfer. The only way the backup/sync could get faster is if Apple put high-speed flash memory in the next iPad, which would likely cause the price of the iPad to increase rather dramatically (we'll have to wait to see if that happens, but I doubt that it will).
Also, Light Peak is NOT backward compatible with USB2 or USB3 or ethernet (or anything for that matter). It can only carry those protocols, you'll still need a transceiver/converter at the end of the Light Peak cable to allow it to connect to any device that isn't already Light Peak aware.
Last edited:
USB2 is almost a certainty. I don't think the MacBooks will get USB3 until next year, when they update to Intel's Ivy Bridge CPUs.
********** magnets, how do they work?!
This looks...interesting, I guess. I'm still wondering what current tech could actually take advantage of 10Gb/s speeds...definitely not platter drives. Bottlenecks, bottlenecks everywhere.
Apple are going to call it Thunderbolt.
http://www.macbidouille.com/news/2011/02/23/le-lightpeak-d-apple-s-appelle-le-thunderbolt
http://www.macbidouille.com/news/2011/02/23/le-lightpeak-d-apple-s-appelle-le-thunderbolt
Apple are going to call it Thunderbolt.
http://www.macbidouille.com/news/2011/02/23/le-lightpeak-d-apple-s-appelle-le-thunderbolt
Oh ••••. That is pure pain right there.
I think I'll just keep calling it Light Peak.
Unfortunately, some of us think Jobs' d*ck tastes much better than Ballmer's. Get over it.
Why does a state-of-the-art optical interface look like a USB cable with metal pins?