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Light Peak Coming in Early 2011 With Apple at Forefront?

Dixie Flatline said:
Lightpeak is not a big deal because it can replace USB. Lightpeak is a big deal because it can replace USB and Firewire and PCI and PCI Express and SATA and SCSI and DisplayPort and DVI and HDMI. It can be used to connect all the components both inside and outside the machine using a single connection architecture.
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True when and if LP is fully adopted and widespread among Mac and PC's. Until then, there will be a transitional period with lots of little interface boxes creating connection hubs: LP I/O, then a bunch of Firewire, USB (1/2/3), DVI, DP, HDMI (HDCP compliant), etc. connections. There is a large existing investment in monitors, disc drives, etc., than will need support for some time.

Just like DP computers have dongles for various other display types.

Eddie O
 
How is this going to help my TM backups to a non-LP hard drive, connect to a non-LP monitor, transfer files to my non-LP thumbdrive, pull photos from my non-LP camera, or charge my non-LP phone?

And anyways, isn't the hard drive the bottle neck wen it comes to TM backups? Or do I now need to buy an SSD :confused:
 
Hitchophilia said:
Hopefully Apple finds a way to sneak 'power over lightpeak' into the standard spec.

Otherwise it's nice, but won't replace USB3.
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I don't think that the standard supports power. I'm not sure though.

However, for the speed increase that will be obtained, people will gladly give up power. USB 2.0 is not going away, if you need power, use that. Mice and keyboard will not be going to LP. Hard Drives, Disk Arrays, workstation-to-workstation connections and the like will be though. The connection will no longer be the bottle neck.

LP makes it feasible to really alter the configurations of Macs. You can access external nearly as fast as internal drives. If we get just half of the advertised speed it will be glorious. This can be a real game changer.
 
KnightWRX said:
Backwards compatibility is going to seriously hurt this thing compared to USB3.
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I remember the RS/232 guys saying the same thing :)

lilo777 said:
It also contains ridiculous statements like this: "If Apple implements Light Peak, it would be a safe bet that the company will have a lot to say about the technology--maybe with a catchy name in tow." Sure. Intel develops new technology and then asks Apple to name it.
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Why not? Do you call it IEEE 1394, "i.link," or "Firewire?"
 
ShiftyPig said:
How is this going to help my TM backups to a non-LP hard drive, connect to a non-LP monitor, transfer files to my non-LP thumbdrive, pull photos from my non-LP camera, or charge my non-LP phone?
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30$ dongle, one for each application. You cited 5 products, hence you need 150$'s worth (I know 3 are USB, and technically 1 USB dongle could plug into a USB hub with your stuff on it, but it's less funny that way).

cmaier said:
I remember the RS/232 guys saying the same thing :)
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The difference is USB connects to a lot more peripherals that RS/232 did. Heck, Keyboards didn't use RS/232 but either used the PS/2 or AT port specifically designed for keyboards.

I had a serial mice once. By the time USB hit, I hadn't used one of those in years.

About the only people that would've screamed about losing external RS/232 ports were the Cisco/Sun guys (I know I cried until those first working USB->Serial adapters came out) that just lost their serial consoles and the people who swore by external modems.
 
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I'm sure apple would include at least one or two USB 2.0 ports alongside any LP ports. There's just too much legacy hardware that needs it (including 200 million or so iPods and ios devices).
 
lilo777 said:
The article about Intel developing Light Peak contains words: Intel - 11 times, Apple - 11 times, DELL - 0 times, HP - 0 times. It also contains ridiculous statements like this: "If Apple implements Light Peak, it would be a safe bet that the company will have a lot to say about the technology--maybe with a catchy name in tow." Sure. Intel develops new technology and then asks Apple to name it. Unnamed sources. And all of this on a week when Steve Jobs sends the following e-mail: "We don’t see USB 3 taking off at this time. No support from Intel, for example." and Intel officially announces support for USB 3.0:

Intel recently notified its partner about its latest platform Chief River that adopts 22nm Ivy Bridge processors with native support of USB 3.0, according to sources from motherboard makers.


Coincidence? I think not.
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"When Intel showed off its new Light Peak optical standard at IDF last week, some people were surprised to see the demo running on a Mac. But it seems Intel had a core reason for using Apple hardware, with the fruity choice being not entirely coincidental.

According to Engadget, Apple is not only implicit in developing Light Peak, the firm is actually responsible for the idea in the first place, with the standard set to play a very important part in the compay's upcoming product lines.

Documents seen by Engadget say Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, brought the plans for a single connector cable directly to Intel's CEO Paul Otellini back in 2007, with Jobs apparently insisting the standard be based on a single port, optical solution.

After some rumoured disagreements, the pair seem to have reached a short term solution for an initial ‘one-size-fits-all' connection, avoiding double dongles. In the near future, however, Apple purportedly plans to release new products equipped only with a Light Peak port, which could skip over USB 3.0 altogether."
 
DTphonehome said:
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I'm sure apple would include at least one or two USB 2.0 ports alongside any LP ports. There's just too much legacy hardware that needs it (including 200 million or so iPods and ios devices).
Click to expand...


Guessing there will be a LP USB hub.
 
I smell trouble for all of us firewire users. This explains why Steve doesn't see eye to eye with usb 3. Next question you have to ask... Intel puts it out in the first half of the new year how long will it take for apple to incorporate it into the new Macs and all the accessories such as hard drives, etc.
 
uraniumwilly said:
Er, Light off.
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Not good for an optical connection at all.

Arcadie said:
does this make a desktop computer obsolete now? with lightpeak, whats stopping me from buying 1 xserve and 4 displays, mice, keyboards and running lightpeak to 4 different rooms instead of 4 imacs? this would especially be beneficial to larger corporations, 10-15 servers could replace 100-150 desktops depending on what they are used for...
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Check out VDM. It's already here and you don't need LightPeak for it.

locust76 said:
Lightpeak is much slower than a standard, full duplex x16 PCI-Express slot.
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No kidding. There's no way to combine all those onto one channel at this time. HDMI 1.4 has a max throughput of 8Gb/s so that wouldn't leave much left for anything else.
 
AAPLaday said:
Now might not be the best time to pick up an iMac then i guess
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Yeah unfortunately I just did! That's the way it goes with tech though right, what can you do?
I just got a 27" iMac i7 with 2Tb drive. I love it though so I'll survive and be ready for Light Peak the next time around :)
 
MacRacer said:
I know USB 3.0 and this Light Peak is the fasted connection speed but the question is where there be hard drive who can read and write 10Gb/s. Those who still have 5400 rpm or 7200 or even SSD won't be able to attain the speed due to limitations on the computer itself. Its like it will be stored on the mass amount of RAM until it is all moved into the HD or SSD.
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Don't forget that 10 Gbps max pipe one way (or up to 20 Gbps in both directions at the same time) is not just going to be passing along information between your computer hard drive and your external hard drives. It's also going to be data being sent from your GPU to your monitor, from your computer's RAM to your printer, etc.
 
BTW, will we be able to see any update for macbook series with light peak?:D
 
ratz said:
Yeah unfortunately I just did! That's the way it goes with tech though right, what can you do?
I just got a 27" iMac i7 with 2Tb drive. I love it though so I'll survive and be ready for Light Peak the next time around :)
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I have felt your pain many times in the past. I remember buying a Power Mac minitower with only serial ports right before the first iMac that ditched them for USB 1.0. Toss it up to the price of progress.
 
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