Fast interfaces overlap at IDF

USB3 and its optical replacement both get real in 2010

Rick Merritt, EETimes
(09/24/2009 5:15 PM EDT)

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — The buzz in fast interconnects at the Intel Developer Forum was supposed to be around SuperSpeed USB, the 3.0 version of the omnipresent interface coming to systems in 2010. But somewhere on the road to San Francisco's Moscone Center, Intel decided to roll out Light Peak, the next next big thing in fast interconnects.

The 5 GHz USB 3.0 still got plenty of attention with a dozen chip, system and software vendors showing working products with throughput up to 250 Mbytes/second. But the 10 Gbit/second optical Light Peak captured people's imaginations—especially when Intel said it would have discrete controllers for it in 2010, perhaps even before it supports USB 3.0 in its chip sets.

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