Report: Light Peak coming first to Apple Macs in first half of 2011

“A technology developed by Intel and backed by Apple is expected to appear earlier than previously thought, paving the way for very-high-speed connections on both PCs and Macs,” Brooke Crothers reports for CNET.

“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,” Crothers reports. “Light Peak is significantly faster than even USB 3.0, carrying data at 10 gigabits per second in both directions simultaneously.”

Crothers reports, “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.”

Read more in the full article here.

27 Comments

  1. Some real concrete reporting here (sarcasm). Just a sampling of the language below:

    Apple is expected …

    …likely earlier in the year than later ….

    “Apple is expected …. if past comments from Intel still hold.

    If Apple implements Light Peak, it would be a safe bet….

    And it would probably not be wild speculation to say….

  2. It’s designed to connect all of the Mac’s peripherals together, such as drives, cameras, HD displays, docking stations, etc.

    I would imagine its application for consumers would be especially useful in home networking.

  3. Firewire is a great thing if you are regularly moving large files. USB 2.0 sucks by comparison. USB 3.0 might be interesting, but if Light Peak gets to market quickly enough, it will smoke it.

    And there should be no reasonable limitations for the cables from what I can tell.

  4. The last I read on light peak was that cable length was limited by it’s ability to power devices, just like USB, since electricity can’t be sent along the fibre. DC is notorious for it’s inefficientcy on long runs.

  5. This is probably why we’re not currently seeing usb3 on any new macs. My bet is Apple will skip it and go straight to LightPeak. Now all the pc systems that spent this past year moving to usb3, will again have to change next year when LightPeak begins to catch hold.

    So again, Apple isn’t behind, they’re actually further ahead than everyone thought.

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