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Situation 1) Apple doesn't care about mac pros anymore and won't update them even though all the parts are available until they feel like it

Situation 2) Apple is getting early access to light peak and the reason they are delaying new mac pros is that they are working with intel trying to build light peak into them.

I hope for door number 2, as I will be in the market for a Mac Pro around year's end, when I would think that this tech would start coming out (or at least get announced).
 
First of all, displays with optical ports won't be widespread till 2015

Displays with Display port ( or DVI or HDMI ) , sound, and USB ports are pervasive RIGHT NOW. This isn't some 2015 thing. To hook up all of the inputs to a display takes multiple cables. Apple's simplicity mindset says that one cable is better than 2 or 3. You can't bluetooth connect everything, nor should you want to in most cases. ;-) Apple already tried combining everything into one cable. It was a bust because nobody else went down that path with them.



[ Yeah sure some folks route the sound out to the discrete speakers and don't hook anything USB to the monitor but many folks do. Similarly if touch sensitive display become more pervasive that is another USB connection that becomes embedded into the device which much be connected to the computer. ]
 
...but Apple could have taken the lead much like they did with FireWire and USB 1.0. Much like they probably will with Light Peak.

Yes, that's why Apple put USB 3.0 and SDXC connectors on the Ipad.

Ooops, no they didn't. They put them on the new MacBook Pros.

Ooops, no they didn't.

Perhaps Apple isn't "in the lead" for much anymore. Especially if the turtlenecked overlord doesn't like the technology in spite of overwhelming market acceptance.


How so? It [Blu-ray] works awesomly on every NON-Mac computer I have.

Steve told me so. I do have Blu-ray hooked to my HDTV and I like it.

Repeat after Steve: "Blu-ray is a bag of hurt", "Blu-ray is a bag of hurt", "Blu-ray is a bag of hurt"....
 
If I have an SD card or hard drive full of HD video that I want to copy to my iMac, how will lightpeak help me?

Even more so opaque if posed relative to USB 3.0. That standard is done and is rolling out to devices now (can buy USB 3.0 external drives now ). Will be even more as the cost of the client silicon drops in price and functionality included in core chipsets.

What else would you need to really take advantage of lightpeak (since SD cards and camera hard drives don't have lightpeak yet)? I'm just not seeing where this really helps me with the one task that seems like the next big thing for computers - moving tons of HD video around. Thoughts?

Lightpeak could be a relatively cheap Fiber Channel, 10G Ethernet, or Inifiband local storage network conduit. If only going to have direct attached storage to one computer (really just two or perhaps three devices in the network ) lightpeak could work out OK. Folks did this a bit with Firewire (e.g., there was a demo of hooking two boxes together forming a Oracle RAC instance. Kind of a plug and play network. Not really done in any real production but demonstrative of Firewire being leverage as a very some local "Ethernet like" medium. )

It wouldn't so much be moving it from the camera to the computer but moving around the multiple captures on the computer between the huge repository that you put them in. Instead of some $3,000-8,000 fancy storage network you have a $500-1,000 not quite as fancy storage network that has similar bandwidth. There is a market for that. I don't that that is common everyday user though.


Here's the problem though. For a single person shop or single person department that is OK. What it doesn't do well is Network attached storage or a SAN in which multiple workstations can get/grabs/edit/save out of a pool of storage. For those Ethernet 10G and Infiniband are future ( Fiber Channel dying off. )

If Lightpeak takes on the Hub/Spoke mindset of USB then it is primarily just useful for a network that connects to a single computer.
 
Wrong

22103.png


Clearly shows that 3Gbps SATA bus limits the fastest SSD drive by almost 30%.

So your point is that a drive can be bottlenecked by an obsolete technology? 3Gb/s has been superseded by SATA III 6Gbps. Which SSD are you referring to and does this SSD drive exceed the SATA III bandwidth (6 Gbps)? Like I said, I am not aware of a SATA SSD that exceeds the current SATA spec. Not saying it doesn't exist, just that I am not aware of it.

I do acknowledge the graph as showing real world chipsets that clearly don't get the full bandwidth of the SATA specification.
 
From what I've read, the current Light Peak connector is USB with flashing lights. Copper is still along for the ride to provide power.
 
From what I've read, the current Light Peak connector is USB with flashing lights. Copper is still along for the ride to provide power.

USB is nice and small and will do, but why do these newer cable types, like HDMI, not have some sort of locking mechanism to secure the cable to the port? Does display port lock in?
 
USB is nice and small and will do, but why do these newer cable types, like HDMI, not have some sort of locking mechanism to secure the cable to the port? Does display port lock in?
Display Port does have a locking mechanism. I wouldn't be surprised to see some sort of combination USB 3.0/Light Peak port.
 
A lot of you are saying this is a bad idea because of the dongleing necessary for using this a as a display cable. But that will go away if there is demand for it to be built into the monitors. Also, having 10 GB/s may be a lot now, but as soon as SSDs take off and speed up this will be AMAZING. Can you imaging a Mac Pro Running 4 2TB SSD through a lightpeak internal connection with a peak of 100Gbs (12.5 GB) per second. AMAZING!

The only question I have is are these speeds burst rate or constant speeds?
 
Right, but even if the data on the Drobo can theoretically move at 10 gbits per second across the lightpeak cable, it's not actually capable of being read and written at that speed yet, right? At the moment, lightpeak is a really huge hose for piping data, but it seems to me we don't have enough water pressure to make this thing work like it's supposed to, and so transferring 10s of gigabytes is still going to take forever even with lightpeak. When/how does that change? Is it SSD drives that are needed to make lightpeak work like it's supposed to?

But A lightpeak cable is just a pipe for bits and can, by the intel first demo, carry packets for all sorts of for different protocols all at the same time till it maxs out.

Plus it's a hub tech so one cable from your computer to your monitor could use the hub in the monitor to drive an lightpeak connector or two, Plus a USB tree for your keyboard, mouse, webcam, touchscreen driver and a hard drive or two. Plus a couple of firewire ports for yet more harddrives or sound mixers. Plus could have a display port connector to drive a second monitor.

So for sound critical environments like a recording studio the computers and indeed anything noisy that isn't an artist could be 50m away hooked up to a racks and racks of noisy equipment.

I think Apple is waiting for this before we see the new displays.
 
And what devices will you connect to it?

The devices that are supported now are over saturated crap and don't work! At least with this, it won't be choked half to death and has the bandwidth... What will you connect to it? EVERYTHING!!! Everything will go this route mr caveman living in the dark ages... It's called, progress!
 
Lightpeak is just another wire

It's a fast wire, to be sure, and the wire may be a fiber optic cable moving photons instead of vibrating electrons, but it's yet another spaghetti factory of wires connecting my computer with the load of stuff I need connected: display, speakers, video cam, printer, discs, etc.

Someone mentioned an array of drives in their basement with the wire running to them. Right, I'm going to rewire my house again (telephone, cat 5, cat 6, RG6, what next?)

Instead of wasting time inventing more wires, spend time inventing a truly high speed WIRELESS technology. So I can just buy a device, stick it somewhere convenient with 50 feet or so, pair with it, and then communicate at 10GB/s. Securely. Error correcting. Universal. You know, Lightpeak without the cable.

Hey, maybe I'll patent the idea then sue whoever actually invents it ;-)

Eddie O
 
It's a fast wire, to be sure, and the wire may be a fiber optic cable moving photons instead of vibrating electrons, but it's yet another spaghetti factory of wires connecting my computer with the load of stuff I need connected: display, speakers, video cam, printer, discs, etc.

Someone mentioned an array of drives in their basement with the wire running to them. Right, I'm going to rewire my house again (telephone, cat 5, cat 6, RG6, what next?)

Instead of wasting time inventing more wires, spend time inventing a truly high speed WIRELESS technology. So I can just buy a device, stick it somewhere convenient with 50 feet or so, pair with it, and then communicate at 10GB/s. Securely. Error correcting. Universal. You know, Lightpeak without the cable.

Hey, maybe I'll patent the idea then sue whoever actually invents it ;-)

Eddie O

While I agree that wires are cumbersome, I often wonder what all these various radio waves - WiFi, Bluetooth, etc. - are doing to our systems. Silly maybe, but after a while you have to wonder.
 
So let's say Light Peak (LP) arrives at 10am next Tuesday. Let's further say it is installed on all current generation hardware by magic.

It will allow you to connect from a CPU to a monitor. Kinda like VGA but with no bandwidth limits. If you go from LP to a LP hub or dongle, you can connect with several disparate devices including monitors, printers, scanners, recorders, HD's, all plug and play and all simultaneously to the single port on the CPU (such as an iPad.)

So the first thing you will need with LP is an LP to LP cable and a dongle or dock. I suggest the dongle has USB, Firewire, Ethernet, LP, eSATA, PCIe, Expresscard, and of course a Parallel port :D.

LP HAS A VARIANT OF ETHERNET PROTOCOL IIRC.

Rocketman
 
Looking to the future as a longer term universal data cable, it would need to carry enough power to charge a netbook or iPad. Also, it will need some connector type that is not more than 3.5mm thick if it is going to become standard for mobile devices. EU has specified micro USB for cell phone power. To have a chance of displacing that, a new standard will need to connect to anything thick enough to have a headphone socket.
 
While I agree that wires are cumbersome, I often wonder what all these various radio waves - WiFi, Bluetooth, etc. - are doing to our systems. Silly maybe, but after a while you have to wonder.

What's that humming sound? Oh, my brain on blue tooth ;-)
 
2011 - Apple releases the completely new and revolutionary MacBook Pro, now with only two ports - one for power and one LightPeak! :rolleyes:



yeah, I'll buy it :apple:
 
God I hope this would solve the gluttony of USB hubs and devices I have.
 
I hope this isn't going to halt usb 3.0 from being supported. As fast as it is, it seems a ways off yet. While USB 3 is ready to go with products already making it to the market. (my interest is blackmagic designs new affordable usb 3.0 video products).
 
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