NEC manages 16Gbps, tries to put a dimmer on Light Peak (updated)
By Tim Stevens 
posted February 18th 2010 11:26AM
posted February 18th 2010 11:26AM
If you didn't know it, there's a brewing interface war between the effortlessly backwards compatible USB 3.0 and the decidedly fresh break offered by Update: TheLostSwede commented to point us to an English version of the press release that, in Japanese form, seems to have led to the Electronista story we used as a source. Apparently something previously got lost in translation as the release actually talks about a wholly new inter-chip serial interface offering 16Gbps speeds, not an extension to USB 3.0. This could provide the system internals to shovel bits to whatever new external interface reigns supreme.
Whoah! This would make a 2tb external hard drive be a lot easier to fill....
@Gamecheater
2GB per second to the storage isn't really useful if it isn't paired with an internet connection capable fo delivering that much pr0n.
@m1lt0n
Not really, considering how it helps with backup.
And unless you're seriously porn addicted, how the hell could you get 2TB of porn? Wait, don't answer that. Please.
@m1lt0n
Well if Google has their way 1gigabit/s internet would be available, which would be about 125 mb/s.
But, transfer speeds mean little here. Is there even a hard drive capable of writing data that fast?
@Gamecheater An SSD would be.
Intel wins either way. They're developing Light peak, and they developed the USB protocol.
USB 3.1?
To many standards, i'll never be able to choose
@killplay
Wake me up when it's in my phone. Until then I can care less...
@PlatinumSkeet
I don't think your phone really has much use for it.
Unless you're on about the iPhone, don't phones nowadays use MicroSD?
@thewelshboyo
Its usually best to just ignore PlatinumSkeet, he really doesn't know what hes talking about. (see his post on google developing their own fiberoptic network for more detail)
@thewelshboyo
Meh I mean later on down the line phones won't be on SD cards forever. Especially with the way medias going..
@EAL
How the hell is my opinion on Google not knowing what I'm talking about? If it's so wrong expound on it since you know so much more than me...
Ludicrous speed, GO!
I hope this gets implemented and/or used sooner. USB IS the standard. We all used it for many, many years. What about Light Peak, we havent used it at all.
Id rather have USB3.0 (3.1?) do 16Gbps.
Another side note, what about OTA. That's the future in my mind. But being able to sync my music lbrary in 15 seconds would be badASS. (if I commented twice my bad, AT&T sucks and I lost coverage or some dumb shit)
Sorry, but the story lost something in translation here, it's not 16Gbps over USB 3.0, it's a chip to chip interconnect http://www.nec.co.jp/press/en/1002/1701.html
@TheLostSwede Yikes, wow. Updating post now. Thanks.
@TheLostSwede
So all Comments about "2TB Porn on my ext. HD" are obsolete?
What a shame...
Finally I can begin trolling... er... hating on LightPeak!
@F C
[TheLostSwede:]
"Sorry, but the story lost something in translation here, it's not 16Gbps over USB 3.0, it's a chip to chip interconnect http://www.nec.co.jp/press/en/1002/1701.html "
Dammit!!!
But why is it so suspiciously quiet around Light Peak? I could do with some news on that front.
Yeah... Move along people looks like someone didn't read the press release.
"NEC and NECEL's newly developed high-speed communication interface technology utilizing binary transmission schemes enable data rates of 16 Gb/s, which is approximately three times faster than existing communication interface standards, such as USB 3.0 and PCI Express 2.0."
So, why do we need these ridiculous speeds? SATA is still limited at 600 mbps, no? And my internets didn't reach 100 mbps yet either...
@(Unverified)
HDMI (1.3) is a bit over 10mbps.
@(Unverified)
SATA III is 6Gb/s, and HDMI is 10.2Gb/s, where the hell are you guys getting your numbers from?
Well played on the image, Engadget! :P
hehe news blunder! meh easy mistake
I'm not a hardware expert so somebody please enlighten me: Do hard drives write fast enough to keep up with these speeds? If the information coming over the wire is too much, is it simply loaded into virtual memory or something? Forgive me if I'm ignorant. I'm just wondering if these transfer speeds will be any good if the two devices connecting cannot store the information fast enough.
@acslater017
A standard HDD will not saturate a SATA I connection, some really fast ones will but for most people their HDDs won't even require SATA II. What is pushing this speed limit however is SSD drives and the occasional RAID setup.
If the media is slower then the connection then the transfer will simply slow down to meet the speed it can handle.
Lol, that was confusing!
Why can't they integrate Light Peak into USB 3.0? In other words have light peak using a USB connector...? Wouldn't that be possible? Retain the old USB 2.0 connectors for backward compatibility, the way it's done in USB 3.0, but instead of the superspeed pins have light peak there...?
@Yankee
if only it could be that easy.
mix a DNA of humans with cheetah's and u'd get super fast humans ;)
@Yankee, not how light peak works plus the bottleneck would be the USB 3.0 in your example.
@eternity0022
That comment made me day...lol
Um, now that you've edited this post, your title needs to be changed -- how is a 16gbps interconnect "dimming" Light Peak? If anything, it's helping it. It seems like the title's just there to be "funny".
They could make it 1000gbps and so on, somebody will still find a use for it.
The speed is great, but the technology behind Light Peak involves multiple wires that allow for full-duplex transfer at maximum speeds each way as well as up to a theoretical 100Gbps transfer rate.
The best part about Light Peak? The goal is to eventually have it replace a majority of cables, ports, buses, etc. That means no more LPT (do we still use these?), USB, HDMI, DVI, SATA, or IDE ports/cables, among many others; every single device attached to or inside of your computer would ideally use the same cables and have the same ports and that indirectly leads to all household electronics eventually using the technology as well. If anyone could standardize something so revolutionary, it would be Intel.