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Is Apple behind the development of Intel's Light Peak?

by Michael Rose Sep 26th 2009 at 8:00PM

If the relationship between Apple and Mac CPU provider Intel was any closer, the two companies might have to start labeling their record collections and discussing whether to keep the wagon wheel table. In an intriguing technology demonstration last week, it was pointed out that the in-development Intel ultrafast optical connection called Light Peak was being shown on a rather elaborate hackintosh, running good old Mac OS X. This raised an eyebrow or two, but the background story seems to be just as interesting.

Engadget reports today, based on conversations with an 'extremely reliable source,' that Apple is behind the Light Peak technology, with C-suite-level discussions between the two companies dating back to 2007 about the specific implementation and capabilities of Light Peak. The post goes on to suggest that Apple will be doing rapid adoption of the optical tech a year from now, with Mac introductions slated for autumn of 2010 with the new port, and a low-powered version to follow along in the 2011 timeframe with future iPhones.

With the initial specification set to transfer data at a blistering 10Gpbs full duplex over cables as long as 100 meters (and with speeds up to 100Gbps lined up for future revisions), a single Light Peak connection could replace DVI, USB, gigabit Ethernet, FireWire, eSATA and just about anything else that would connect your computer to its environs.

One cable for everything, reducing clutter and increasing elegance? You have to admit, it does sound rather Jobsian.

Thanks to Josh Topolsky and everyone who sent this in.



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If the relationship between Apple and Mac CPU provider Intel was any closer, the two companies might have to start labeling their record...
 

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Michael Rose

That said, file transfer speeds are never going to go at the raw line speed anyway, as there is always some kind of protocol overhead.

Suffice it to say that this connection is 100 times faster than 100 Mbit Ethernet, 20x faster than USB2, and more than 10x faster than FireWire 800 (all of which measure their speed in bits, not bytes).

September 29 2009 at 12:27 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Michael Rose

Multiply by one thousand, divide by eight.

Giga = mega x 10^3
bit = 1/8 of a byte

September 29 2009 at 12:25 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
NavStar

I have no problem with Apple running "the show".

They are far more innovative and future pushing than nearly any other tech company.

Wonder how Intel feels about Light Peak moving in on USB 3's territory?

September 28 2009 at 6:10 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
jbrown510

LOL... love the multi colored light shooting out of the fiber optic filiaments.... umm, wouldn't these by infrared?

September 28 2009 at 12:49 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to jbrown510's comment
Michael Rose

Yes, they would, good eye -- if you look at the pictures on Intel's site, there's a note that the 'laser light' is for illustration purposes only and that the real lasers would be infrared.

September 29 2009 at 12:28 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
David

It was a nekkid Mac Pro folks, not a Hackintosh.. I know it's probably not as 'ohmygawd'-worthy news as Intel using a Hackintosh, but c'mon.. :P

September 27 2009 at 9:47 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
mwak

This port won't make it unless all major manufacturers jump behind it, which in my opinion is very unlikely. USB 3.0 is a much more realistic choice for the 'one port to rule them all' idea because it is backward compatible with existing USB 1-2 devices. As we've seen with apple's mini-display port, which is a fantastic piece of technology that only works with apple's overpriced monitors without an adapter, regardless of how good a new technology is, it needs to be a) universal and b) backwards compatible.

September 27 2009 at 4:01 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Chris Leither

Like slabman said:
"What do other companies laptops have that Apple's don't? Docking stations. With LightPeak, they will have them. This connection allows you to plug one cable into a phone or laptop and instantly connect it to kbd, screen, drives, etc."

I haven't read ALL the articles, but afai understand it... other connections like mini-dp are not gonna die. I mean:
You have a MacBook with Magsafe and LightPeak as the only connectors. So that is ONE cable to connect to...say... a kayboard, a mouse, a display, an external display, an external Blu-Ray SuperDrive. There simply is no way one cable can connect to ALL of them, assuming it doesnt have like 10 heads at the other end. So a docking station seems rather logical to me. And with a docking station it would STILL retain all the legacy adapters like USB, FW and DVI/VGA/DP...
If the LightPeak tech were NOT to be interconnectable with these already existing devices which have found wide-spread adoption... then heck... be it as fast as it will... it is dead already... so we do not have to care/worry anyways. Looks like a win/win situation for us customers this time...

September 27 2009 at 5:47 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
slabman

What do other companies laptops have that Apple's don't? Docking stations. With LightPeak, they will have them. This connection allows you to plug one cable into a phone or laptop and instantly connect it to kbd, screen, drives, etc.

September 27 2009 at 5:18 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jeff

Of course Apple is developing this. Look at their Fiber Channel standard they use for high-end systems. It's like what.. 2Gbps per channel? Now with Gigabit Ethernet full duplex creeping up to 2Gbps, what else can they do but develop a NEW Fiber Channel to keep all the high end peeps happy.

September 27 2009 at 1:40 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Jeff's comment
killmoms

Apple didn't invent Fibre Channel, and FC can already go up to speeds as high as 20Gbps with the correct hardware (though 4 is the most common). I'm thinking they're intending this for something else—FC is already well-supported by many manufacturers in the high-end storage market (mostly for SAN deployments).

September 27 2009 at 1:54 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Russell Glober

If the "record collection" reference didn't date you, the "wagon wheel table" one sure did! Heh. Right there with you, though...

September 26 2009 at 10:40 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Russell Glober's comment
Michael Rose

Glad someone caught the reference. :)

September 26 2009 at 11:58 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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