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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

New Light Peak Laptop

New Light Peak Laptop

  • Light Peak

    Votes: 79 79.8%

  • USB 3

    Votes: 20 20.2%
  • Total voters
    99
I would love to see usb 3 in apple computers today. And light peak (or a combination of the two) in the future.

I'm not buying a new mac until they install one or both.
 
Tom Lowe said:
Well, it's my understanding that lightpeak can be added to any computer with a simple PCI card, right? That would mean, whenever it comes out, just add the PCI card and you're off to the races.

Considering that I just built a new PC that I don't think as USB 3, would it be possible to add USB 3.0 also with a PCI card? Right now I have eSATA running from PCI.
Click to expand...

It's all here :) And unexspensive too!
http://www.buffalo-technology.com/p...fc-pcie2u3-usb-30-pci-express-interface-card/
 
Tom Lowe said:
Considering that I just built a new PC that I don't think as USB 3, would it be possible to add USB 3.0 also with a PCI card? Right now I have eSATA running from PCI.
Click to expand...

Tom, your new PC has dual USB 3.0 ports (blue connectors) as well as 2x Sata3 6GB/s ports.
 
USB 3 is clearly winning and will continue to move towards being the de facto next-gen standard for a while. But 5 years is a long time…

If LightPeak is half of what it is hyped up to be, it is a leapfrog generation beyond USB 3, and could be 3 years later and still be interesting. It does smell a bit light transparent, fluorescent, 100-layer discs, but at least this one's backed by more credible R&D efforts. (Then again, it was not that long ago that RED was regularly considered vaporware, and the more credible R&D divisions still aren't ready to take on their 1st gen sensor).
 
Jarred Land said:
Whatever the new standard becomes.. we will support it. I just wish everyone would get off the pot and make up their minds so we could get on with it :)
Click to expand...

So, tomorrow will be the big day? Everybody is talking about the thursday 24th reveals...

Light peak (Thunderbolt?) in the new macbook pros? using the mini display port as connector...?
http://www.mac4ever.com/news/60807/la_photo_du_nouveau_port_thunderbolt/
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-20034900-64.html

and then there's the rumor that the final cut update is about to happen.

http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/22/ne...its-spectacular-and-its-expected-spring-2011/

epic, scarlet, lightpeak, new final cut ... exciting times!
let's just hope that these apple rumors will come true...
 
this is so cool its like my software AND hardware will become obsolete over night! how is a kid to sleep, its like xmas over here i love u apple:patriot:? :cheers2:

on a side note another MBP rumor was they are going to ONLY use SSD from now on....

so new port, new software, and faster drives... wow i hope some of these rumors are true, or ideally all of them! now if i could just pay off the old gear and my student loans....:dita:

but honestly i really am excitedly awaiting the new tech... the only thing that could possibly make my nerdy existence better at the moment is if scarlet took deposits the same day apple drops new MBP's with new out of the box tech....its like the high school prom no one went with me to all over again, i am just so excited!:coolgleamA:

Patrick Grossien said:
So, tomorrow will be the big day? Everybody is talking about the thursday 24th reveals...

Light peak (Thunderbolt?) in the new macbook pros? using the mini display port as connector...?
http://www.mac4ever.com/news/60807/la_photo_du_nouveau_port_thunderbolt/
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-20034900-64.html

and then there's the rumor that the final cut update is about to happen.

http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/22/ne...its-spectacular-and-its-expected-spring-2011/

epic, scarlet, lightpeak, new final cut ... exciting times!
let's just hope that these apple rumors will come true...
Click to expand...
 
The problem with USB 3 is that it is just another evolutionary improvement which can barely cope with today's bandwidth demands, let alone tomorrow's (does anyone see 4K screens in their not-too-distant-future?). One must not overlook the great advantage of LightPeak: because of it's bandwidth potential (scalable to 100 Gbit/s), compact size, maximum run length (100 meters!), it could be the interface to replace all interfaces. Aren't you tired of having to find/use all the myriad adapters and connectors you need to do your everyday work? USB 2 A/B/C, Firewire 400/800, DVI, HDMI, Ethernet, SDI, DisplayPort, eSATA, etc. I know there's a huge snake of cables running from my workstation to my control room that I'd like to get rid of with a *single* (!) cable....

Disclaimer: I don't own any stock in any company related to Lightpeak. :001_smile:
 
Jean Déraps said:
The problem with USB 3 is that it is just another evolutionary improvement which can barely cope with today's bandwidth demands, let alone tomorrow's (does anyone see 4K screens in their not-too-distant-future?).
Click to expand...

Exactly. USB3 is not forward-thinking technology, it's an incremental band-aid layer added on top of obsolescence.

That said, USB3 is finally gaining ground and manufacturers are finally releasing USB3 products that actually work as they should. It may seem as if Apple will be shooting themselves in the foot if they do not include USB3 capability on any new systems moving forward. However, I don't see it as a problem if LightPeak comes out very soon (possibly tomorrow) and there are adapters and products to connect to it.

As for LightPeak, it is definitely the future connection technology. It seems like a great specification and what many people have not realized yet is that it's designed to be combined with other standards. LightPeak draft specs detail it being intended for combination with USB2, USB3, DisplayPort and HDMI. Not only that, but LightPeak is protocol-agnostic and can run any of those standards (and more) over the LightPeak interface.

I'm not sure I'm ready to believe the posted Macbook Pro pics with the Thunderbolt port -- which seems to be LightPeak combined within mini-DisplayPort. While that would be awesome on the 13" MBP, I sure hope that if this is true, we get more than one Thunderbolt port on the 15" and 17" systems. I'm also curious as to what the initial bandwidth of the ports will be. If it will be the full 10Gbps or 8GBbps, 6... etc.. Some recent reports seem to indicate that while 10Gbps was the target, the initial copper implementation would be 6Gbps and distance-limited to 12meters.

As it stands, if the above is true, that port could serve as both external display, USB3 and 6Gig iSCSI. Of course, not all at the same time without bottle-necking itself. Hence why the larger MBP models need multiple ports.

One must not overlook the great advantage of LightPeak: because of it's bandwidth potential (scalable to 100 Gbit/s), compact size, maximum run length (100 meters!), it could be the interface to replace all interfaces. Aren't you tired of having to find/use all the myriad adapters and connectors you need to do your everyday work? USB 2 A/B/C, Firewire 400/800, DVI, HDMI, Ethernet, SDI, DisplayPort, eSATA, etc. I know there's a huge snake of cables running from my workstation to my control room that I'd like to get rid of with a *single* (!) cable....
Click to expand...

Exactly. As LightPeak scales, we'll have hubs and the ability to attach any form of device to the LightPeak host. What I'd love to see on the new MBPs are a mini-DisplayPort and 3xUSB3 with the mini-DisplayPort and at least one of the USB3 connectors being LightPeak enabled.

The most common form LightPeak will take over the next year or so will be integrated with DisplayPort (regular or mini) or integrated with USB2/3, mostly for the common connector style and the ability to draw power.

It looks like the reports of Apple calling their LightPeak implementation "Thunderbolt" are credible. It also seems that it may not be just Apple, but the standard itself may be getting the "Thunderbolt" name from other manufacturers, including Sony and Dell. Seems a bit early to tell, and it also seems that Apple has the market exclusive for a bit. The real question is what devices will I be able to buy right away that support it? I'd love to see a desktop RAID like a Drobo support it, LTO tape systems would be great. LightPeak to eSATA adapter would rock too... Just sayin'
 
Words of wisdom, Jeff. I'm going to hang fire on a few non-crucial investments until this tech' settles down a bit. A Thunderbolt fed LTO would be a seriously cool piece of kit.
 
Jean Déraps said:
The problem with USB 3 is that it is just another evolutionary improvement which can barely cope with today's bandwidth demands, let alone tomorrow's (does anyone see 4K screens in their not-too-distant-future?).
Click to expand...

Yep, way too much CPU overhead with USB. I'm hoping that LightPeak/Thunderbolt will be as good as Firewire in that regard and with regard to low latency transfer.
 
Unfortunately, Intel has basically reneged on Light Peak. The light is gone; Intel ditched the fiber, and now it's a half-assed copper connection.

Too bad, because the original idea would have provided a much-needed way to add outboard processing (RedRocket?) to laptops and all-in-ones.
 
Palmer Woodrow said:
Unfortunately, Intel has basically reneged on Light Peak. The light is gone; Intel ditched the fiber, and now it's a half-assed copper connection.

Too bad, because the original idea would have provided a much-needed way to add outboard processing (RedRocket?) to laptops and all-in-ones.
Click to expand...

I don't think they've ruled out optical yet. Hopefully in time we get a hybrid copper/optical cable that's backwards and forwards compatible.
 
The speed is great, i just hope it can power devices or else its another miss to me. Ive been using alot of USB3 bits on my mac for a couple months now, and I have gotten to the point where I can't go back to Firewire800.. or even Esata. That said.. stupid things people have done with USB3 still makes it a pain in the ass sometimes. ( like Lacie making the drives only work with their cards )
 
Low end systems will just have USB 3 and that will be fine for what they need. High end systems will have both USB 3 and Thunderbolt (Light Peak) and that will be even better. It is actually good to have two interfaces. One for things like keyboards that need to send lots of small packets and another for things like disk drives that need to send massive streams of data. Apple will get USB 3 when Intel supports it in the chipset. (Panther Point? Do we know that? 2012?)

I in particular am looking forward to a Thunderbolt LTO drive. SAS and SCSI over ethernet both seem pretty ugly.

Thunderbolt appears to be an Intel trademark, unlike Firewire, which was an Apple trademark, so hopefully there will be consistent nomenclature across the Mac and PC families.
 
...So what happens when Intel announces that they will not be supporting USB3 or rolling it into future chipset products?

Er, um, just hypothetically sayin'
 
A chance for AMD to get back in the game

A chance for AMD to get back in the game

Jeff Kilgroe said:
...So what happens when Intel announces that they will not be supporting USB3 or rolling it into future chipset products?

Er, um, just hypothetically sayin'
Click to expand...

Then hopefully AMD kicks their asses! They should be already on this but they seem just as disorganized as Intel these days. Intel has been doing this forever. They always hobble their processors with late or buggy or unavailable chip sets. And now that they have stopped letting other companies make competing chip sets there isn't anyone who can bail them out. But in reality Intel doesn't have any competition other than ARM and ARM doesn't play in this space, yet.
 
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