Apple brands Intel 'Light Peak' as Thunderbolt Apple's take on Intel's 'Light Peak' high-speed IO technology will be call Thunderbolt, it has emerged, and it will be delivered through the new MacBook Pro's DisplayPort connector. Throughout the morning, snaps have appeared online showing the specification stickers on the back on the new MacBook boxes. The first ones were in …
Apple called IEEE 1394 "Firewire". Not a bad name but Sony decided to call it i.Link, and Texas Instruments called it Lynx. 3 brand names and one official alpha numeric all talking about the same standard. The situation was further muddied by some devices using one connector style and others using another.
Would it be too much to task that Intel / Apple decided up front on a name with this particular standard? I think I prefer Lightpeak over Thunderbolt. The latter conjures up images of electrocution really.
HTC with their Thunderbolt handset; by Thunderbolt Computing, Inc. of Redmond, WA; by Squakenet of games fame and Thunderbolt Computer & Software Service of Georgia.
Seems all these have prior claim to this name, not that it's ever stopped Apple stealing others names before ... including the word apple!
Yeah, because they're all really easy to confuse with a connection method.
The very fact that you can cite four different users of the term Thunderbolt (five, if you include Apple) suggests that everyone can get along happily without thinking that their new MacBook Pro comes with a free HTC handset.
Muppet.
>Let me just clarify something. This Light Peak connection thingy doesn't involve light in anyway, except it's name, right?
Not yet. The first incarnation will use copper. The protocol itself though is designed to transfer to fibre optic in the next revision.
IIRC cost and the need to bring something to market forced Intel to ditch fibre in the first version.
The technology was developed with optical connections in mind, then modified to work over copper. Presumably, the implementation Apple is going to reveal next week will be the copper variety. I understand that the advantage of copper is that it can carry power to a connected device, but I'm guessing copper won't have the same long-term speed potential as optical.
"Intel has been working on Light Peak for years and recently said <b>the initial version</b> would be based on copper, as time-to-market realities necessitate more conventional technology.
Light Peak is significantly faster than even USB 3.0, carrying data at 10 gigabits per second in both directions simultaneously.
<b>Connection speeds will not be affected by the transition to copper </b>, according to Intel. "
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-20034900-64.html#ixzz1EoKBv1jS
"Is there anyone who is in the market for a grand's worth of laptop who has any need for a permanently fitted DVD drive? What do people use these things for?"
I'm in the middle on this one: while I don't really use the drive in my laptop all that often, I'm pretty sure I don't want to carry around an external drive just in case. So I guess I'm saying I'd rather carry a little extra weight/size than a seperate item.
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