Light Peak technology may be available on the market in a few months

Based on plans by one of Intel's main suppliers (Taiwanese Foci), CNET News today suggested that Light Peak technology could debut in commercial products as early as 2010. Demonstrated a few days ago with Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, it will start to be used in the production of internal cables for computers and others with conventional USB connections.

Foci Light Peak cable, with USB connectionsFoci Light Peak cable, with USB connections

This is only the beginning of the trajectory of this technology in the market, which can be adapted to any type of connection existing not only for storage purposes, but also for networks and monitors. Thanks to electrical transmission, Light Peak cables will also be used to charge devices. The idea is to spread the new cable model to several types of connections, including FireWire, DisplayPort and Ethernet.

In the case of USB, your forum of implementers will begin to analyze the new cable technology for standardization in the connection, which could take two years. However, initiatives like this must be well planned, as computers and other devices must have chipsets to support the benefits of the new cables, capable of reaching up to 10 gigabits per second in transfer speed.

Janpu Hou, vice president of Foci, said that the new cables will not use fibers made of alternative materials to glass to be more accessible, as the final quality would not be the same. The expectation of durability of a Light Peak cable of up to seven thousand connections and physical disconnections is somewhat irrelevant for internal circuits, but is considerably good for use in USBs and buses of this type.