Light Peak has been off the radar for quite some time now, buried underneath a pile of iPad and iPhone news. But now it has shown its pretty fiber optic head again. This time though, there are no FrankenMac computers involved. Kevin Kahn has predicted that the Light Peak Fiber optic technology might go mainstream as fast as early 2011.
Whilst this will have little effect on people right now, it is important news because Light Peak has been worked up by Apple and Intel as the next universal connector that will connect everything. Hence, it will replace USB. And if it really starts shipping with new devices as early as 2011, then USB 3.0 may be skipped altogether by the industry.
Light Peak was originally intended to replace USB 3.0 but now the latter might not even have a chance of seeing much of adoption. Light Peak is an unthinkably fast technology that works through fiber optic cables to carry information at speeds of 10Gbps. This speed is both up and down, meaning you are going to run out of things to push through but there will still be bandwidth left. Only current SSD’s can match up speeds with this technology but to completely fill out that much bandwidth, you will need to be reading and writing to multiple SSDs at the same time.
Light Peak was rumored as being manufactured by Foxconn, Apple’s favorite manufacturing partner. An official at Foxconn allegedly confirmed last year that they will start mass production by the first quarter of this year. And in that case, it is entirely believable that the technology will reach manufacturers by the end of this year and new devices with Light Peak on them will start shipping early next year.
Currently, Light Peak is supposed to be compatible with USB 3.0 so ease in to the market without too much problems on the part of early adopters. But to harness the true capabilities of the technology, it needs to be on both ends.
Light Peak will allow manufactures to provide only one physical port on their device and then provide a break out cable that will connect to everything else – FireWire, USB, VGA, HDMI, S/PDIF etc. This way, the physical footprint of the device can be lowered, more components can be fit in and it can be much more compact.
A Mobile version of Light Peak is also supposed to be in the works and will have slower speeds but similar properties.
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s logo - logo b - foxconn Light Peak - LOGO DE NOKIA - 2011 predicted gadgets - intel icon image - i7 tablet - white imac frankenmac - logotipo da intel - foxconn - ACER LOGO PNG - asus p6t tem usb 3 0 - intel white logo - logo with b - logo oem windows 7 acer - logo toshiba oem - logotipo da intel com apple - oem windows 7 acer logo - logotoshiba - oemlogo asus -This article was posted as Light Peak Predicted To Beat USB 3.0 To The Punch at Otaku Gadgets.
