An announcement from Apple is expected soon about Light Peak, a new high-speed connection technology, a source told “CNET” ((http://macte.ch/qw3Ve) reports, quoting an unnamed source.
Whether the new connector tech will be part of an upcoming MacBook Pro update (rumored to happen Feb. 24) or announced in another context “is not clear,” the article says. “CNET” thinks Apple will use Light Peak soon, but probably use another name for it. Intel has said in the past that the first products using Light Peak should appear in the first half of 2011. When Intel initially demonstrated Light Peak at its developer conference in 2009 it used a machine running Apple’s Mac OS X.
Light Peak paves the way for a new generation of extreme computer input and output (I/O) performance, delivering 10Gb/s of bandwidth, with the potential ability to scale to 100Gbs over the next decade, according to David Perlmutter, executive vice president and general manager, Intel Architecture Group. At 10Gb/second, a user could purportedly transfer a full-length Blu-Ray movie in less than 30 seconds.
The optical technology allows for smaller connectors and longer, thinner, and more flexible cables than currently possible. Light Peak also has the ability to run multiple protocols simultaneously over a single cable, enabling the technology to connect devices such as peripherals, displays, disk drives, docking stations, and more. Think of it like loading up many cars onto a high-speed bullet train.
— Dennis Sellers
dsellers@applecentral.com