Intel and Apple to launch Light Peak as Thunderbolt in the MacBook Pro
According to CNET, Intel is holding a press event on Thursday to launch its Light Peak technology. Light Peak is a high-speed connection technology that lets a single interface replace the SCSI, SATA, USB, FireWire and PCI Express ports on a computer. The technology was introduced in 2009 and, according to an Intel executive, is ready to make its commercial debut. The current iteration of Light Peak is based on copper, not optical technology, and is expected to provide 10 gigabits per second bi-directional data transfer.
Rumors from as far back as November 2010 suggest Apple may incorporate Light Peak into its 2011 MacBook Pro models. The press event in San Francisco seems to corroborate this rumor as the Intel invite reportedly states the briefing will "discuss a new technology that is about to appear on the market." Apple was rumored to be working closely with Intel on this Light Peak technology, and an early public demonstration of its capabilities was performed using a machine running Mac OS X.
Fsklog and Mac4Ever claim to have insider specs that suggest Light Peak will debut as Thunderbolt on the upcoming MacBook Pro notebooks. Combined, the two blogs purportedly have an image of the actual Light Peak port on a MacBook Pro (suspiciously looking like a mini-display port), an advertisement piece with the larger trackpad, a promotional logo for Thunderbolt and a spec sheet. Of course, all these images can be faked easily with Photoshop, and ThunderBolt is a trademark filed by Verizon for its upcoming LTE smartphone, so take this latter information with a grain of salt.
[Fsklog, Mac4Ever and Engadget]
