A few days ago Intel demonstrated its new Light Peak technology which is a high performance optical connection capable of up to 10Gbps in a bi-directional flow. That means Light Peak is able to transmit, via one cable, 10Gbps worth of information in two directions at the same time.
The real beauty of this connection is that because it has so much bandwidth it can be used for multiple peripherals at one time. Imagine, one connection for your USB portable drive, your monitor, your keyboard and mouse, and your gaming console. Getting wood yet? If so, keep reading...
Why should you care? Well as it turns out (as you will see in the video above) this was demonstrated on a hackintosh computer of some kind. That in and of itself is pretty strange, but when digging deeper
Engadget found out that this technology was actually developed by Apple and given to Intel to bring to market. Ok big deal, right? Wrong.
Remember a few moons ago when Apple ditched all connections to its computer lineup in favor of USB? And also remember how everyone thought they were crazy? I do... because I was one of them who thought they were just arrogant to think we'd all one day switch to USB for peripherals of all kinds. And now look at how we connect stuff to our computers today.
Most interesting to iNerds like myself, Engadget also found out that there is an Intel roadmap showing this technology coming out on Apple computers in Q4 of 2009 and in unspecified mobile devices Q1 2010. Not only that, but another big point about the idea behind Light Peak seems to be that it can be used in a low-voltage capacity such as those used in mobile devices (ahem,
iTablet anyone?).
Still, why should you care if you're just a PC user and not a Mac fan? Here's why... because if Intel is behind something like this as much as they seem to be you can bet your ass that it's going to be the standard at some point in the future across their motherboard platforms. And if it performs anywhere as efficiently and as quickly as it seems to in this demo, it is going to turn the industry on its USB 3.0 ass in a big hurry.
Links -
Engadget,
Gizmodo,
MacRumors 
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