Apple Light Peak connectors with up to 100GBps bandwidth

Apple could be on the verge of releasing a new high speed connection to some of its upcoming Macintosh range of computers, according to a report that speculates the announcement that the company could release revised MacBook Pros as early as next week.

CNET have announced that a source has told them that this new interface could actually be the Intel Light Peak Controller rebranded under a new name of Apple's choosing. Rumours are that this could make it to the next range released shortly, or perhaps even the next generation in 2012. Latest reports also indicate that the new notebooks could feature minor adjustments to the chassis design.

Light Peak is a high speed optical cable technology developed by Intel that has been widely expected to make its debut on personal computers and peripherals in Q1/Q2 of this year. It supports bandwidth up to 10GBps with future proofing upgrades to 100GBps. How fast is this? Well Intel claim on their website that a full length BluRay movie could transfer over Light Peak in less than 30 seconds.

Apparently, Apple have been the driving force behind Light Peak, using their influence to push Intel to develop the concept because it wanted the new standard to play a ‘hugely important role' in future products and to replace other connectors such as USB, Firewire and even Displayport.

Light Peak can achieve these fantastic speeds over fibre optic strands the size of a human hair and it can handle multiple protocols over a single cable. This means it can replace Displayport for video, USB for peripherals, SATA for disk drives and even Ethernet for networking. It is ten times faster than Gigabit Ethernet and three times faster than eSATA/SATA 300. Within the next ten years Intel have hinted that it can be enhanced to 100 GBps through revisions to the technology.

KitGuru says: Is this the future of connectivity? Will Apple be the first to adopt it in mainstream computers?

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