Comments on: Intel Light Peak to debut with copper cables not fiber-optic?

By: DRailroad

DRailroad — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 08:41:33 +0000

“. . . whether fiber optic cables will have the same resilience to everyday use as regular cabling, or if careless users might accidentally crack the lightpipes . . .” makes PERFECT sense. Otherwise, as is typical of the overwhelming multitude of complaint-prone users, we will hear nothing but a plethora of users complaining of cables (fiber) breaking.

Very proactive, if not consumer aware, move by Intel (unfortunately). The market for those that would know the fragility of fiber optic vs. wire would be TINY (read: “unprofitable”) when compared to a more profitable mass market (again, unfortunately). Yeap, judging from past experiences this DOES make perfect sense!

By: Boston61

Boston61 — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 04:21:50 +0000

This makes no sense at all. What the heck are they thinking? One of the largest advantages is that Light Peak would use fiber because it’s very fast and will work over very long cables. Not to mention that it’s galvanically isolated. Major advantages when used in Pro audio/video production which is a huge part of Apple’s market. With copper nobody will buy it ??

By: turn_self_off

turn_self_off — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 18:00:54 +0000

iirc, their plan was to have both fiber optics and copper in a single cable. This so that they can deliver both data and power using a single connector (much like usb and firewire).