If you if take a computer from the late 1980s, the next one from the late 1990s, and one from today and put them side by side, you can see that over the years we have used a fair amount of different ports for peripherals. Computers built long ago have entire ports just for timepieces like keyboards, mice, printers, and monitors. In older computers, you also had to attach a special computer card to the motherboard if the gamer wanted to add other peripherals such as joysticks and gamepads.
Then came the universal serial bus, or usb, standard. While usb hasn't eliminated any special ports, it has reduced their number. In modern times, peripherals such as keyboards, mice, printers, and computer cameras are available as usb accessories. The ports are hot-pluggable, meaning you get the great ability to plug or unplug them at any time. They are also interchangeable in the sense that you don't need to plug each tablet into a specific usb port. And at the same time, usb has certain limitations.
One of these limitations is speed. The usb 2.0 standard transfers data at a speed of 480 megabits per second (mbps). This is only necessary for the smooth functioning of timers such as keyboards and mice, but not enough for devices with increased bandwidth, like computer monitors. The usb 3.0 standard increases the speed to 4.8 gigabits per second (gbps), which is 10 times more powerful than usb 2.0, but the computer industry is slowly adopting usb 3.0.
Intel has certain benefits. Own detailed advice on transferring files at gentle speeds using a standardized format. It's called light peak. Intel says it has the potential to spread information at speeds greater than twenty times the speed of usb 3.0. And as the name suggests, this bike will do that kind of movie viewing with light.
The speed of light
Fiber optics is not a new technology. At a very basic level, a fiber optic cable is a glass tube with a reflective material covering the outer surface. If you shine intense light on 1 end of a fiber optic filament, the light will continue to travel down the filament, reflecting inwards until it exits the other side. If you turn the lights on and off, everyone can dock with a code. It's a modern take on an old idea that goes back to signal lights.
Instead of communicating in morse code, fiber optics transmit information in bits. A laser at one end provides the internet, and a sensor at the next converts the signals into binary data. Some online service providers (isps) use fiber to distribute information over a particular network. Some of them provide fiber optic access to customers' homes, which means that these consumers use incredibly fast access to the network. This is because, unlike copper wire, which carries electrons to clients, optical fiber is not limited by material constraints. Information can be transmitted at the speed of light.
Intel light peak uses features of this technology. In the center of the circuit is a special chip. The chip can handle multiple protocols. A protocol is a system of instructions, somewhat similar to languages. Devices using a particular protocol do not understand other protocols. By creating a chip that can handle multiple protocols, intel hopes to reduce the need for different types of wiring products and ports.
Lasers that generate light at light peak are surface emitting vertical cavity lasers ( vcsel). Their side is 250 micrometers - a micrometer is equal to one millionth of a meter.
Intel explains that the light peak chip will have four fibers. Each fiber will be able to transfer 10 gigabits of information every second. Why multiple fibers? Fiber optic communication is only in a small direction at any given time. When multiple fibers are used, communication can be transmitted to and from the chip at the same time. This will increase the speed of information exchange.
Light peak and usb 2.0light peak can transfer more details per second than usb 2.0, which has a maximum speed of 480 megabits. Per second. Light peak also continues bi-directional communication, which means that information can be transferred from the computer even to the device at the same time. Usb 2.0 uses a method called polling, in other words, the exchange of information can only take place in a single direction together. Usb 3.0 provides bi-directional communication and boosts the data rate to 4.8 gigabits per second, which is less than half the original speed of light peak.
Pros and cons of light peakBeyond speeds, there are et cetera reasons for switching to fiber. First of all, after the cost of manufacturing fiber optic lines falls, they should become more affordable than copper wires. Glass is relatively cheap to produce - it's basically sand.
You can even daisy chain devices together with light peak cables. During the demos, intel connected the computer to an external hard drive using light peak cables. Intel then ran a second light peak cable from the external hard drive to the high resolution display. The computer recognized both mechanisms and could send porn to the display, extracting information from an external hdd. This demo showed that light peak is not anything fast, it confirmed that it is capable of transmitting some data using two different protocols over the same length of cable. It also showed that you don't need to connect every peripheral directly to the laptop - you can use the peripherals as a special hub. Over a longer distance. The maximum length of the usb cable is about 5 meters (16.4 feet). But a fiber optic link has the ability to span up to 100 meters (328.1 feet) without degrading service. And the light peak fibers are only 125 microns in diameter, about the diameter of a human hair. For applications requiring paper money; 3 and affordable cables, fiber optics wins.
Copper wires have another problem - interference. Copper is vulnerable to radio frequency (rf) interference, leading to warranty issues. But fiber optics uses light that is not affected by rf leakage or radiation.
Will intel have trouble thinking about the light peak? It is difficult to obtain information from the firm, but one symptom of the fact that development is going on in a difficult environment, as it may be, is that in one generation of light peak technology, copper will be installed to send data, but not fiber. According to intel reviews, this is because the engineers found ways to push the performance of copper beyond what they thought was possible. But why use copper at all if fiber is the future?
Maybe intel is still improving fiber technology and plans to use copper wire as a stopgap. Early press releases about light peak suggested that the technology would start appearing in products around 2010. Intel pushed back this time to 2011. While there is no confirmation from the food that engineers encountered roadblocks while working on fiber optic solutions, it is possible that manufacturing or performance issues slowed down development.
Like a bolt from the bluefebruary 24, 2011 apple has introduced an update to the macbook pro line of laptops. The key to the new features is thunderbolt, a data transfer port capable of transmitting information at a speed of 10 gigabits per second. Sounds familiar? This is intel light peak with a new name. Whether such a new name for light peak or thunderbolt will remain an apple exclusive remains to be seen. When it comes to their new technology. One problem: is light peak powering peripherals? The usb standard can transfer electricity from a computer to peripherals. That's why usb-to-keyboard or mouse don't need batteries. But fiber is not capable of efficiently powering devices. In an interview with laptop magazine, intel engineer viktor krutul explained that the light peak will provide power electrically rather than optically. This means that intel will bundle the copper wire together with the fiber in the light peak cables. The copper wire will carry electricity and the fiber will carry data [source: butler].
Will light peak replace usb 3.0? The latest version of the usb standard hasn't had much of an impact on products at this time. Usb 3.0 data rate is less than half of light peak initial rate. In case intel is right about the fact that light peak will eventually reach 100 gigabits per second, then there may be little reason to upgrade to usb 3.0. But intel representatives said that light peak is not just for reconstruction or competition with usb 3.0. According to intel, these two strategies should work together.
Can intel delay usb 3.0 support while it prepares for the launch of light peak?Some journalists, such as chris mellor of the register, have wondered if intel's usb 3.0 delays are motivated by a desire to promote light peak technology [source: mellor]. The company's official response denies the allegations. Intel also played a role in the development and promotion of usb technology. But while other chip manufacturers were releasing chipsets that support usb 3.0, intel delayed production until 2012.
We know for sure that intel is working with apple. We have to expect apple products to support light peak connections in the coming years. Will light peak become the new data transfer standard, or will it follow firewire's example and play a secondary role to usb? We'll have to wait and see.
Learn more about gadgets and communication by visiting the addresses on the next page.
What is light peak technology?
Light peak technology is a new type of optical fiber designed to transmit information at extremely high speeds.
How the nehalem microprocessor microarchitecture works
How usb ports work
How firewire works
How bits and bytes work
How parallel ports work
Intel: thunderbolt
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