Intel Light Peak and Apple- A good match?
Intel’s Light Peak, new technology that could replace USB, is looking like it could appear on Apple’s Mac computers over a year before Intel’s previous estimates. Bring on the speed!
USB is beginning to show its age, and though it has been included on just about every computer for the last many years, may be superseded by a new technology, developed by Intel and called Light Peak. Apple has been reported as having bought into Light Peak, looking to push device transfer rates up to the 10 gigabit (bidirectionally simultaneous!) speed that is the Light Peak standard. Light Peak is up against USB 3.0 technology, and beats it hands down for speed. Plus, Light Peak was developed by Intel, which has yet to even announce support for USB 3.0, which may be the death knell for USB technology.
Most reports have seen Light Peak becoming available some time in 2012, which is a long time to wait. Now, the latest gossip indicates that it could be available early next year, built into chipsets by Intel and available on computers built by Apple. With Light Peak waiting in the wings, USB seems both stodgy and slow. Those are terms that absolutely no one applies to Apple. That, plus the Apple penchant for innovation, makes them a logical banner-carrier for Light Peak, according to a CNET story. When Intel demonstrated the technology, they did so on a machine running OS X.
Support for USB 3.0 has been very slow to appear, and has been primarily supported on very high-end laptops from Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Asus, and Toshiba. It seems as if many manufacturers are still sitting on the fence waiting to see how the Light Peak / USB battle shakes out. If Apple gets on board early with Light Peak, Intel may well break with the USB tradition, moving ahead to replace it with its own Light Peak technology in terms of Intel chip-set support.
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November 4th, 2010
What’s the use case for it? USB Flash drives aren’t really saturating USB 2, let alone USB 3. USB hard drives can go with eSATA. Most other peripherals have inherent speed limits below USB 2/3. HDMI ports & WiDi handle high-bandwidth video.
So what devices need Light Peak? What will be the driving force?
December 2nd, 2010
I’m thinking possibly future “Kinect” style devices