While there are certainly fewer interfaces around today on the average computer than there were a decade ago, there are still too many. It’s all just data, why should it matter what kind of pipe it goes down? As long as it goes both was and can handle the bandwidth you need it to, you’re golden. Intel’s pushing down that road with Light Peak, though the ultimate end of it is, obviously, obsoleting the USB standard that they helped establish. In an interesting wrinkle, however, it appears that no one less than Apple (king of irritating alternative interfaces) has been prodding Intel into action for years now.
The idea of a single connector for your display, network adaptor, hard drive, and mouse seems crazy, but that’s only because we’re so used to the jungle of I/Os on the back of our machines. At 10Gbps, the optical Light Peak interface is faster than the latest SATA, and has the potential to go much faster. Hopefully it’s powered; there’s nothing on that at Intel’s site, but it’d be easy enough to adapt the consumer interface to include a power cable running parallel, I think.
In any case, Apple’s been pushing on Intel to make this happen, probably because they want to be the first to put it into use. They’ve collaborated for a while; Engadget has more of the history if you’re interested. I’m excited to see more of this technology.
Update: Just kidding! Looks like Engadget got it wrong, the poor dears.
Now see, this whole Light Peak thing would be a prime example of the bizarre Apple bias of the entire Internet. I have seen maybe two articles anywhere that are actually about Light Peak, but no less that 15 articles making sure everyone knows that Apple is involved with it. For the most part no one seemed to give a damn about it when it was just another Intel standard. But Holly shit, Apple is involved? Then this must be hot news! Quick, make sure we write an article about it, and be sure to mention Apple!
I’d hardly call prodding a ‘critical role’. Apple is only prodding Intel because they want another proprietary connection to increase the price of their products. I see no justification in putting Apple in this article.
Never thought I’d be saying this, but – go read the Engadget article. I didn’t want to eat their cake by reposting the whole story, there’s more to Apple’s role than I put in this blurb.
Yes, but my question is, would anyone be discussing this story if the party in question was MSI? I used to work in the semiconductor industry, and all sorts of companies have all different levels of involvement with various projects. Typically that is not news, unless apparently the company in question is Apple.