The end of USB? Intel demos new Light Peak cable that's twice as fast as USB 3.0

[DaBees-Knees]

http://blogs.zdnet.com/computers/?p=2130&tag=nl.e539

USB 3.0 is just making a dent in the marketplace, and Intel is already talking about a new cable that may signal the end for USB altogether. At the Intel Developers Forum in Beijing, the chip giant demonstrated the Light Peak cable that it first announced last fall.

Light Peak has a lot to offer, including 10Gbps throughput, twice that of the latest flavor of USB, along with the ability to run multiple protocols at the same time. That means you connect all of your devices with just a single Light Peak cable. As part of the demo, Intel showed a laptop with a Light Peak cable attached to a USB 3.0 port that simultaneously transmitted a Blu-ray video and HD camcorder footage and drove a second display.

Intel says the Light Peak has a chance to scale up to 100Gbps over the next decade. It plans to have the technology ready for manufacturers to start implementing by the end of the year, with the first devices sporting Light Peak capability becoming available sometime in 2011.

Something to look forward to. Anything that improves transfer speeds has to be good. 

[MinersLantern]

Why havent they used light a long time ago?
Photons through fiber or even air are much faster than electrons over a piece of wire.
Of course ive always been wondering why on earth a serial interface (for anything) was reinvented from the telegraph days when a 32 conductor bus can do the same thing 32 times faster. Equally as silly as a serial interface to a hard drive. What good is a fast drive when you have to wait for data to slowly flow along a single wire to get there?
Using light can bring in the advantages of serial (one path) with very high speeds as well. Wonderful idea, even if it should have been done in the 1990s.

[Pri]

The reason they didn't use Light up until now is due to price. The silicon controllers for a light-speed interconnect were very costly but now that Intel has designed some new controllers based on their 32nm fabrication technology it has brought the costs and performance in to an acceptable realm for commercial application.

Also it is inevitable that lightpeak will take over USB 3.0 for a few reasons.

1. It is going to use the same physical connector as USB and be electrically compatible with USB 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0
2. It can supply as much power as USB 3.0 to connected devices
3. It can pump multiple protocols through the 1 cable including USB, Firewire, Ethernet, DVI, Display Port, HDMI (With Sound)

Light Peak has been designed to be the last connector you ever need. Able to fill the needs of all other cables and in most cases at greater cable lengths while remaining physically compatible with the most popular cable to date which is USB.

[GhostShip]

This all sounds peachy but of course we all know the computers we use don't operate using light and thus the signal always requires conversion and that's where the majority of the speed is lost, it will be interesting to see the true speed of this interface system end to end rather than simply quoting a light frequency as the expected throughput that seem more fantasy than fact.

[White Stripes]

USB was a kludge from the start.... intels 'inventions' are really starting to get on my nerves...

--edit--

anyone out there remember the horror that was the i810 chipset? .... howbout its decendents like the GMA? or howbout 633mhz cpus with 66mhz front side busses (huh??) ...

wow... intel 'reinvented' optical fibrechannel (used for highspeed tape backup systems harddrives and other uber speed server grade equipment) and gigabit ethernet.... im sooo not impressed....

[Max™]

maybe they will re-invent the wheel n call it wheel3.0