Light Peak coming to Apple

[Jeff Wexler]

CNET reports that Intel is preparing to launch its Light Peak high-speed computer connection standard as soon as early next year, paving the way for 10 Gbps connections.Light Peak is now on track to appear in products in the first half of 2011--and likely earlier in the year than later, according to an industry source familiar with the progress of the technology. Light Peak is significantly faster than even USB 3.0, carrying data at 10 gigabits per second in both directions simultaneously.

Apple is expected to play a key role in the deployment of Light Peak, as the company was said to have played a key role in the development of the technology.. . .Apple is expected to back Light Peak, if past comments from Intel still hold. Shortly after its annual developer conference in 2009, Intel said that it had showed the technology to third parties, got feedback, then incorporated the feedback into the next design, adding, at that time, that "Apple is an innovating force in the industry." (Apple has reportedly claimed that it conceived the idea for Light Peak.)

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. And it would probably not be wild speculation to say that Apple would want to be the first to use it.

The apparently-imminent release of Light Peak technology could explain the reluctance of Intel to adopt support for USB 3.0 in its chipsets and Apple CEO Steve Jobs' recent claims that the company doesn't see USB 3.0 "taking off".

With the two companies reportedly collaborating on the even faster Light Peak standard envisioned as a replacement for USB, FireWire and various display connector standards, they may simply have decided to bypass USB 3.0 entirely.

[Sam Mallery]

"10 gigabits per second in both directions simultaneously"

Woah.

[RadoStefanov]

Jeff it does not seam logical.

Light Peak as a universal replacement for monitor/usb/firewire would go against Apple policy of having strange plugs and charging a lot of money for adapters.

I am amazed that Apple concept technology comes out so fast considering they invented Firewire in 1986 and kept it for 12 years.

Maybe because Intel developed it.

Regular users would not benefit from Light Peak however big companies will benefit fromLight Peak's  PoE.

"10 gigabits per second in both directions simultaneously"

Woah.

[Jeff Wexler]

Jeff it does not seam logical.

Light Peak as a universal replacement for monitor/usb/firewire would go against Apple policy of having strange plugs and charging a lot of money for adapters.

I am amazed that Apple concept technology comes out so fast considering they invented Firewire in 1986 and kept it for 12 years.

Maybe because Intel developed it.

Regular users would not benefit from Light Peak however big companies will benefit fromLight Peak's  PoE.

Logic or not, Apple has been actively involved with Intel to develop Light Peak interface and data protocol. Apple's invention of Firewire, back in 1986, was very important to the whole industry at large and has survived all these years because of its usefulness and wide adoption by hundreds of companies and in hundreds of devices --- it is still "kept" by Apple (and all the other manufacturers) because it has not yet outlived its usefulness. Of course, Apple is always looking forward to the next great thing and Light Peak may be one of those things. As for it not fitting in with Apple policy --- it will have a new strange plug, of course, and all kinds of adapters may be needed to provide legacy backward compatibility (if there even is any backward compatibility) and they will cost what they cost.

Apple has a history of doing these sorts of things that seem to infuriate so many all at once and then as time passes no one remembers that it was Apple to introduced these things they can't live without. A simple example goes back to the introduction of the original iMac. NO PRINTER PORT! No serial printer port, no parallel printer port, these are the industry standards! So, when the iMac first came out there was only 1 printer available to work with the iMac --- an Epson inkjet printer that cost $450. and connected via USB. Outrageous! How can Apple force us all to use USB for printers? What's next, keyboards, external drives? What happened next is history --- the iMac was such a huge success that in a very short period of time, all the major manufacturers of printers went USB and the price of a printer equivalent to the original Epson printer came down to the low prices we still have today --- and almost everybody, regardless of whether they use a Mac or a PC, started happily using the "Universal" Serial Bus in a whole new way.

[RadoStefanov]

By kept I meant that it took them 12 years to release the technology.

12 year buried in a drawer in Apple.

Not seeing the light of day.

Logic or not, Apple has been actively involved with Intel to develop Light Peak interface and data protocol. Apple's invention of Firewire, back in 1986, was very important to the whole industry at large and has survived all these years because of its usefulness and wide adoption by hundreds of companies and in hundreds of devices --- it is still "kept" by Apple (and all the other manufacturers) because it has not yet outlived its usefulness. Of course, Apple is always looking forward to the next great thing and Light Peak may be one of those things. As for it not fitting in with Apple policy --- it will have a new strange plug, of course, and all kinds of adapters may be needed to provide legacy backward compatibility (if there even is any backward compatibility) and they will cost what they cost.

Apple has a history of doing these sorts of things that seem to infuriate so many all at once and then as time passes no one remembers that it was Apple to introduced these things they can't live without. A simple example goes back to the introduction of the original iMac. NO PRINTER PORT! No serial printer port, no parallel printer port, these are the industry standards! So, when the iMac first came out there was only 1 printer available to work with the iMac --- an Epson inkjet printer that cost $450. and connected via USB. Outrageous! How can Apple force us all to use USB for printers? What's next, keyboards, external drives? What happened next is history --- the iMac was such a huge success that in a very short period of time, all the major manufacturers of printers went USB and the price of a printer equivalent to the original Epson printer came down to the low prices we still have today --- and almost everybody, regardless of whether they use a Mac or a PC, started happily using the "Universal" Serial Bus in a whole new way.

[Q]

By kept I meant that it took them 12 years to release the technology.

12 year buried in a drawer in Apple.

Not seeing the light of day.

That is partly because even though firewire was capable of moving large amounts of data, most computer processors and data buses were not capable of handling that data.  Kinda like trying to fill a glass with a firehose.

[RadoStefanov]

Partly TRUE!

It could be modified and used.

The reasons:

1 firewire allows daisy chain!

2 serial ports are evil!

That is partly because even though firewire was capable of moving large amounts of data, most computer processors and data buses were not capable of handling that data.  Kinda like trying to fill a glass with a firehose.

[Marc Wielage]

By kept I meant that it took them 12 years to release the technology.

No, by all reports it simply took them this long to get it to work. They haven't been hiding this stuff, plus it was a co-development between Apple and Intel.

Full story on Light Peak at this Wikipedia link.

Apple is guilty of certain things -- high prices, big profits, using cheap labor, being very stubborn about user interface issues, problems with developers, not adopting Blu-ray -- but I don't know of a case where they deliberately held back on an advanced technology out of spite. If they held back on anything, it's because it had a lot of bugs, or because it was just too expensive to make.

--Marc W.

[RadoStefanov]

I do not think it was expansive to make. But you might be right about not releasing because of bugs.

However it has not stopped them before. (:

No, by all reports it simply took them this long to get it to work. They haven't been hiding this stuff, plus it was a co-development between Apple and Intel.

Full story on Light Peak at this Wikipedia link.

Apple is guilty of certain things -- high prices, big profits, using cheap labor, being very stubborn about user interface issues, problems with developers, not adopting Blu-ray -- but I don't know of a case where they deliberately held back on an advanced technology out of spite. If they held back on anything, it's because it had a lot of bugs, or because it was just too expensive to make.

--Marc W.

[Marc Wielage]

Hard to argue with that, Rado. I've been bitten by Apple before.

But Microsoft was far, far worse. (I remember the hell that was Windows95...)

I just discovered today during a brief power failure that OSX Snow Leopard has a thing called "Safe Sleep" mode, where the damn thing goes into hibernation -- writes all the active RAM data to hard drive, then powers down. I was totally stunned when the computer came back up, exactly where I had left it.

So Apple does sometimes quietly improve things in the background without making it obvious. They're sneaky that way. Brilliant company, but sometimes very frustrating to deal with.

--Marc W.

[RadoStefanov]

The biggest problem of Win 95 was bad hardware especially ram.

I remember having a blue screen a day with my Asus Motherboard.

After contacting Asus they told me to buy the recommended Ram with their motherboards.

No more blue screens. I think a had a few with windows milenium and one with windows 2000 but it was a hardware failure blue screen.

Since XP I have never seen a Blue screen.

I always buy Asus Motherboards. They include the tested ram in there manuals.

I always follow it.

Bad hardware is the reason for most windows problem.

But that is the price you pay for freedom and democracy.

I buy asus because they have been making there own hardware and testing the compatibility.

Apple is very relible because they support very limited chip sets, memory controllers  and hardware.

If people are smart about what they buy windows "especially windows 7" is the most reliable OS.

Wait after 2014 when windows drops XP. There will be a new windows that will Rule.

[Jeff Wexler]

I always buy Asus Motherboards.

Bad hardware is the reason for most windows problem.

But that is the price you pay for freedom and democracy.

I buy asus because they have been making there own hardware and testing the compatibility.

Apple is very relible because they support very limited chip sets, memory controllers  and hardware.

Over the weekend, PC World published the results of its annual reliability survey, incorporating reports from 79,000 tech users to assess customer satisfaction with reliability and tech support for a wide variety of products. As in previous surveys, Apple topped the rankings in an assortment of categories, with PC World going as far as to say that Apple "once again smoked the competition", despite a few stumbles from the iPhone.

Apple once again smoked the competition in the desktop, notebook, and smartphone categories, winning high praise from customers in all reliability and service categories. The Macintosh and iPhone maker did so well that virtually all its scores were above average.

The report went on to name Asus as a very close second to Apple (with Asus far surpassing anything from the usual suspects, Dell, HP, etc.).

So, Rado is right --- if you have to use something other than a computer from Apple, Asus is the best bet. Apple will always have the advantage because it is the only computer company that has total control over the software (OS) and hardware that goes into their products.

[RadoStefanov]

Great info Jeff.

I have seen PC World favor Apple in some ridiculous comparison.

So I question their agenda.

Asus have 2 years no questions asked replacement policy.

They give you one year originally and if you register in less then 15 days from order they will give you an extra year.

You can break burn or trow in the pool. Drive over with your car if you want.

I have seen a lot of people with water damage being burned by apple.

And if you open the macbooks the keyboards are open towards the motherboard where the WATER DAMAGE sticker is.

Over the weekend, PC World published the results of its annual reliability survey, incorporating reports from 79,000 tech users to assess customer satisfaction with reliability and tech support for a wide variety of products. As in previous surveys, Apple topped the rankings in an assortment of categories, with PC World going as far as to say that Apple "once again smoked the competition", despite a few stumbles from the iPhone.

Apple once again smoked the competition in the desktop, notebook, and smartphone categories, winning high praise from customers in all reliability and service categories. The Macintosh and iPhone maker did so well that virtually all its scores were above average.

The report went on to name Asus as a very close second to Apple (with Asus far surpassing anything from the usual suspects, Dell, HP, etc.).

So, Rado is right --- if you have to use something other than a computer from Apple, Asus is the best bet. Apple will always have the advantage because it is the only computer company that has total control over the software (OS) and hardware that goes into their products.

[RadoStefanov]

Jeff this is for you

The asus Pad

I am pretty sure OSX will work on it. The only uncertainty is a the wifi card.

Worst comes to worst you can use any GSM 3g service.

[Matthias Richter]

new Macbook Pro with Lightpeak April 2011?

http://www.edibleapple.com/apple-to-unveil-new-ipad-in-january-new-macbooks-in-april-along-with-new-version-of-fcp/

[Marc Wielage]

Remind me not to ask Santa for an iPad this Christmas...

--Marc W.