Intel's Light Peak - Fiber Optic Interconnects

[Shiggity]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-10362246-264.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0

'Superspeed' USB 3.0 is coming out soon and will be able to transmit data at 5Gbps (10x faster than USB 2.0).

The first version of lightpeak scheduled for 2010 will be able to transmit data at 10Gbps.

Light Peak uses circuitry that can juggle multiple communication protocols at the same time, and the Light Peak promise is for a universal connector to replace today's incompatible sockets for USB, FireWire, DVI, DisplayPort, and HDMI. It's a hot-plug technology, meaning that devices can be linked when they're up and running.

My biggest surprise when I read this article was the backing Intel had from other major players. Sony and Apple both heavily endorsed this technology. Never hurts to have them on your side

Mainstream fiberoptics, yes please

 

[sherretz]

Rumors are that Apple tapped Intel to develop the tech. If it makes it to the street with any kind of support, it could be very interesting.

I won't be surprised, however, if we see what we saw with USB 2.0, where add-on cards were used for a good year before the tech made it to native mobo support. That, of course, means the speeds would be bottlenecked by the PCIe bus until that point.

This begs the questions; will we have to choose between this and "normal" USB 3.0? Will the two connectors be different?

 

[johan851]

I would guess that USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 will use the same connector, and that this optical technology will use something else. Sounds like a good idea - it would be nice to replace USB with something that's actually universal, including display ports and such.

Apple is probably pushing this because it has a ton of applications in mobile devices.

 

[sherretz]

Last pics I saw of USB 3.0 looked like they took a 2.0 printer cable and basically put the "printer side" connector on top of the normal rectangular USB connector. Tough to explain in words, but everything I've seen shows a different connector for 3.0.

I can't post links yet, but MaximumPC has pics of the cable from an article they did Aug 18, '08 on their site.

 

[johan851]

Last pics I saw of USB 3.0 looked like they took a 2.0 printer cable and basically put the "printer side" connector on top of the normal rectangular USB connector. Tough to explain in words, but everything I've seen shows a different connector for 3.0.

I can't post links yet, but MaximumPC has pics of the cable from an article they did Aug 18, '08 on their site.

Ugh. They probably don't need to make the change, they just want more money.

 

[-Blue-]

biggest problem with this is that it does not provide power so you need an extra cable... which simply sucks..

 

[Randyman...]

I thik the primary application for this will be like a Laptop "Docking Station" or simular. But being 10Gbps with a future upgrade path to 100Gbps, this will likely find other applications as well...

 

[benbaked]

Last pics I saw of USB 3.0 looked like they took a 2.0 printer cable and basically put the "printer side" connector on top of the normal rectangular USB connector. Tough to explain in words, but everything I've seen shows a different connector for 3.0.

I can't post links yet, but MaximumPC has pics of the cable from an article they did Aug 18, '08 on their site.

USB 3.0 will be backward compatible with USB 2.0 devices, according to everythingusb.com.

5. Will my existing peripherals still work? How will they co-exist?
The good news is that USB 3.0 has been carefully planned from the start to peacefully co-exist with USB 2.0. First of all, while USB 3.0 specifies new physical connections and thus new cables to take advantage of the higher speed capability of the new protocol, the connector itself remains the same rectangular shape with the four USB 2.0 contacts in the exact same location as before. Five new connections to carry receive and transitted data independently are present on USB 3.0 cables and only come into contact when mated with a proper SuperSpeed USB connection.

[size=-3]pic from getusb.info[/size]

 

[Shiggity]

*UPDATE*

http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-10370349-264.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0

Also, like USB today, Light Peak will accommodate electrical wiring so that it can supply power to devices.

Heading into production next year.

 

[-Blue-]

glad they are adding power to it.. otherwise it's uses would be very limited

 

[markp1989]

I thik the primary application for this will be like a Laptop "Docking Station" or simular. But being 10Gbps with a future upgrade path to 100Gbps, this will likely find other applications as well...

at that speeds sounds like a decent replacement for gigabite networking

usb 3 isnt even seen any where yet, so it will be a while before light peak.