Intel could release Light Peak technology in first half of 2011, Apple to follow
Intel's Light Peak optical cabling technology is on track to make its first appearance in products in early 2011, with Apple expected to follow soon after, according to a new report.
Apple expressed a very strong interest in Light Peak after Intel approached them with it several years ago. According to an Engadget report from September 2009, Apple Chief Steve Jobs and Intel CEO Paul Otellini allegedly fleshed out the Light Peak standard after Apple intimated that it was looking into optical signaling as a single port solution.
Light Peak is a high-speed optical cable technology with bandwidth of 10Gbps, with the possibility of scaling up to 100Gbps in the future. A full-length Blu-Ray movie could transfer over Light Peak in less than 30 seconds, Intel states on its website. The company "expects to see Light Peak in PCs and peripherals in 2011."
In a new report from CNET, industry sources claim that Light Peak will make its debut in the first half of 2011, and "likely earlier in the year than later." Apple, which is described as an "innovating force in the industry," is expected to incorporate Light Peak quickly after its release.
Early versions of the technology have already been tested on Macs. In 2009, "an Intel demonstration at its developer conference used a machine running Apple's Mac OS X," wrote author Brooke Crothers.
Optical cabling would provide Apple an alternative to USB 3.0. Though the Cupertino, Calif., company was rumored to be adding USB 3.0 to its Mac Pro and iMac desktops this summer, the updates failed to materialize. Apple has had the USB 3.0 specification for almost a year and a half. Intel has also resisted adopting USB 3.0, holding off on supporting the standard in its chipsets, despite one Intel spokesperson assuring that Intel remains "absolutely committed to USB 3.0 and beyond that."
Apple has a history of innovating connectors and ports, often 'leading the pack' ahead of other companies. In 1998, Apple introduced the iMac G3 as the first computer to abandon older legacy ports and adopt the new USB port as standard. Other PC makers soon followed suit, with USB eventually becoming the de facto standard for peripherals.
However, Apple's innovations aren't always adopted by the mainstream. For years, Apple pushed its FireWire standard, but saw adoption in mostly niche markets.
A continued Apple/Intel partnership for Light Peak would make mainstream adoption of the technology highly likely. Intel has the reach needed to drive costs down, and Apple is willing to take risks with new standards. Intel may also be looking to work with Apple to develop a mobile version of Light Peak, which would help it break into the mobile space, where Intel's Atom processors have struggled for years.
The partnership may be at risk, though, given the on-again, off-again partner-turned-rival relationship that the two companies have shared as of late. Intel's Otellini recently went on record criticizing the Apple TV set top box as "a step backward" when compared to the rival Google TV platform, which Intel is partnering with Google on. Otellini sent an email to employees last month, detailing the "marathon" that Intel plans to run in order to catch up to Apple in the tablet and smartphone markets.
Apple expressed a very strong interest in Light Peak after Intel approached them with it several years ago. According to an Engadget report from September 2009, Apple Chief Steve Jobs and Intel CEO Paul Otellini allegedly fleshed out the Light Peak standard after Apple intimated that it was looking into optical signaling as a single port solution.
Light Peak is a high-speed optical cable technology with bandwidth of 10Gbps, with the possibility of scaling up to 100Gbps in the future. A full-length Blu-Ray movie could transfer over Light Peak in less than 30 seconds, Intel states on its website. The company "expects to see Light Peak in PCs and peripherals in 2011."
In a new report from CNET, industry sources claim that Light Peak will make its debut in the first half of 2011, and "likely earlier in the year than later." Apple, which is described as an "innovating force in the industry," is expected to incorporate Light Peak quickly after its release.
Early versions of the technology have already been tested on Macs. In 2009, "an Intel demonstration at its developer conference used a machine running Apple's Mac OS X," wrote author Brooke Crothers.
Optical cabling would provide Apple an alternative to USB 3.0. Though the Cupertino, Calif., company was rumored to be adding USB 3.0 to its Mac Pro and iMac desktops this summer, the updates failed to materialize. Apple has had the USB 3.0 specification for almost a year and a half. Intel has also resisted adopting USB 3.0, holding off on supporting the standard in its chipsets, despite one Intel spokesperson assuring that Intel remains "absolutely committed to USB 3.0 and beyond that."
Apple has a history of innovating connectors and ports, often 'leading the pack' ahead of other companies. In 1998, Apple introduced the iMac G3 as the first computer to abandon older legacy ports and adopt the new USB port as standard. Other PC makers soon followed suit, with USB eventually becoming the de facto standard for peripherals.
However, Apple's innovations aren't always adopted by the mainstream. For years, Apple pushed its FireWire standard, but saw adoption in mostly niche markets.
A continued Apple/Intel partnership for Light Peak would make mainstream adoption of the technology highly likely. Intel has the reach needed to drive costs down, and Apple is willing to take risks with new standards. Intel may also be looking to work with Apple to develop a mobile version of Light Peak, which would help it break into the mobile space, where Intel's Atom processors have struggled for years.
The partnership may be at risk, though, given the on-again, off-again partner-turned-rival relationship that the two companies have shared as of late. Intel's Otellini recently went on record criticizing the Apple TV set top box as "a step backward" when compared to the rival Google TV platform, which Intel is partnering with Google on. Otellini sent an email to employees last month, detailing the "marathon" that Intel plans to run in order to catch up to Apple in the tablet and smartphone markets.
Comments
Intel's Light Peak optical cabling technology is on track to make its first appearance in products in early 2011, with Apple expected to follow soon after, according to a new report.
I hope this report is true. Data transfer speed is definitely one of the bottlenecks holding back overall system performance.
Intel may also be looking to work with Apple to develop a mobile version of Light Peak
Fuck this - release ONE version small enough for mobile devices and DO NOT BOTHER with a larger version. When are these people going to learn?
Oh, and make the internal connector the same as the external, instead of like the idiotic decision to make SATA and eSATA use slightly different, but ostensibly the same connecter. Just leave the locking tab off the internal connector but otherwise don't change the mating specs.
Oh, and make the internal connector the same as the external...
Let's pray they don't use the same boneheaded non-polarized connector that USB uses, it's annoying as hell to be always flipping it around when it doesn't insert the first time.
If they do it right, LightPeak will use a ROUND barrel connector, with power carried on the inside and outside of the barrel, and a single coaxial optical fiber in the center. The fiber would carry data in both directions.
Sadly, I suspect Intel will take the easy route as usual, and provide some half-engineered good-enough-for-the-PC-world solution.
"Apple expressed a very strong interest in Light Peak after Intel approached them with it several years ago."
I think that's up to debate. Wikipedia is not written by Apple, nor Intel. As far as I know, Apple has never even mentioned LightPeak, or have they? Several sources seems to imply it truly comes from Intel, and that the rumor of it being Apple's idea comes from seeing the technology demonstrated on Mac OS X.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10363956-64.html
I'm having high hopes for LightPeak. If it is what they promise, LightPeak can potentially run several protocols, like FireWire, USB1,2,3, DisplayPort, PS/2, Ethernet, eSATA with adapters - plus just pure LightPeak. So instead of having 5 different ports, you could have 5 Light Peak ports, and decide yourself what you wanna use them for.
All this potential.. I hope at least some of this gets real, and works flawlessly for even low level peripherals such as FireWire audio cards, USB3 video capture cards etc.
The only thing that worries me, is I have had some experience with optical cables, and they are fragile.
If it gets to 100 Gbps, that's plenty fast to hang a large monitor on it, keyboard and graphic device, storage device, and so on. Transport fast enough to run everything at once. Whoosh.
Yep. Universal Serial Bus was never universal because it was not fast enough for monitors. But this could (maybe!) be the one-port-to-rule-them-all.
...the one-port-to-rule-them-all.
One port to bring them all...into the light!
Fuck this - release ONE version small enough for mobile devices and DO NOT BOTHER with a larger version. When are these people going to learn?
Oh, and make the internal connector the same as the external, instead of like the idiotic decision to make SATA and eSATA use slightly different, but ostensibly the same connecter. Just leave the locking tab off the internal connector but otherwise don't change the mating specs.
Or use an adapter. This works exceptionally well for headphones. At home, use the large 1/4" plug, and for mobile use, there's the smaller 1/8" plug.
Well, I could anyway. I'm sure there are power users on here for whom 10 TB/s would not be enough!
UPDATE:
Oh. I guess if I would bother to do a little research, I would find the answer to my question.
Let's pray they don't use the same boneheaded non-polarized connector that USB uses, it's annoying as hell to be always flipping it around when it doesn't insert the first time.
The USB symbol is always on top when plugging in the connector. That is a USB standard. Manufacturers are supposed to emboss the symbol so that there is a tactile indication, but Apple just uses cheap USB connectors with the symbol printed on.
Don't blame the USB standard, blame Apple for not embossing the USB symbol.
Let's hope this is true!
Wish they spent more time developing better/faster wireless tech instead.
As to light peak I don't believe it will ever become one port to rule them all. For one in its current incarnation it is to slow. Especially considering the move to much faster secondary storage devices and much higher display densities. The link would very quickly be come over whelmed.
Then there is the issue of economics, USB-xx will not go away anytime soon simply because of cost. Think about the mouse, memory stick or other low cost devices and the impact of adding a optical interface to the device. I'd love to have Lightpeak in a laptop, especially as a link to a base station, but couldn't live without a couple of USB ports. Given that, the first big use for the link will likely be to SAN / NAS systems.
In any event I do hope Apple doesn't screw this up by getting cute. Like has already been mentioned Apple sometimes takes what amounts to stupid approaches to new tech. Firewire being a good example of Apple having a good idea and then killing it in the greater community with to much negativity. Hopefully Intels involvement here will keep Apple from getting to quirky. Unfortunately I'm uneasy about this tech, not because of the tech itself but rather because of the possibillity that Apple will take our much loved MBPs and turn them into something disliked maybe even hated.
I also recall that the first version will have 4 ends for one port, so mbp with one lightpeak could offer 2 sata 1 dvi and 1 usb.
So the next MBP will have USB, Firewire and Lightpeak ports?
No one here has said anything with certainty. I'm not sure what even caused you to ask that question in the way you did.
Wish they spent more time developing better/faster wireless tech instead.
Wireless sucks. You are likely one of those people that wonder about those of us that stress the need for Ethernet ports in our laptops. The reality is wired or optical connections are faster and more versatile. That will be the case well into the future even when the 60 GHz wireless standard is in place.
In my estimation Firewire is dead, USB however is likely to be supported for a very long time. The reality is Firewire is a problematic port for Apple, the sooner they can get rid of it the better.