Useless if you are with TimeWarner

Cool

I've always wondered why not more fiber optic connections. Why not have 2 fiber cables and a cooper cable on one plug? (In, Out, and Power)

Fiberoptics are already used in internet Ring networks all over the world.
They're also used in some Sony Audio & hifi.
It's no surprise they will start using this in computers too.
Just know that the fiber optic cables are very sensitive to nicks.
Bend the cable twice in an angle and you can throw it away, or suffer loss of bandwidth.

great!!

we can look forward to Monster brand Light Peak cables where it can make the light travel 5 times faster than generic Light Peak cables.....

Interesting...where do we go now after reaching the speed of light?

I have been wondering if they can send audio through optic cable why can't they info. But now I see they can.

Now only if more than government had fiber optic net in western canada. =D

Kind of late with the news Toms.

I wonder if this could be used for inter-device communication, maybe it would now be possible to put video cards in external enclosures with their own PSU and ventilation. Is PCIe 2.0 x16 8GB/s or 8 Gb/s?

Optic cables that have these speeds have been available for networks for a while. The difference with this technology seems like it must be more in the actual interface with the different hardware, not necessarily the cable itself? Sounds more like a replacement for USB and HDMI, etc.

Go to all optical, do it!!!

The question is...

If I'm not allowed to back up my Blu-Ray media by copying it to any other media...how did Intel test this?

Weve already got 40 Gbps optical cables, and 1Gbps copper cables. So, whats so special about this unless its really cheap...

Meh, call me when its 100Gbps. Or if its as cheap as copper.

I think the real awesome thing is that they hinted to it being really cheap... like a USB cable.

We already have those speeds... and even more... on both copper and optical. If it's cheaper than 1/10th the cost of InfiniBand, CEE and other things already that fast, then I think it'll still be too expensive for consumers. It better be the cost of a USB cable.

Optical is already a standard for professional audio.

But as a general purpose USB like thing, it would have to be really robust.

While the interface may be capable of 10Gbs, I doubt any device connected to them will transfer at that rate anytime soon. Although, it's nice to know that, potentially, one could get by with daisy-chaining all their devices with just one cable and still have bandwidth left over to spare.

I'm still waiting on my optical processor made entirely out of glass.

"I'm still waiting on my optical processor made entirely out of glass."

Glass? Screw that, we need diamond! It would be a GREAT processor material if we could grow them big and cheap. Lot of progress has been made in that area, but still a ways to go.

10Gb/s is about 10,000 Mb/s and 20Mb/s is about 2.1 MB/s then 10,000/20=500
and 500 times 2.1 is 1050 MB/s. Holly shit that is fast!!!

Fiber optics.... =] My teacher was talking to me about that being the future when I was in 10th grade... that was about 5 years ago.

My god there are some STUPID posts today!

First of all to pakardbell (not even going to say it) Mb's are 8 to 1 MB. 10Gb/s is 1280MB/s. Throw together a few enterprise class RAID arrays (fiber channel of course ) and you can saturate that.

Second to all of you that seem surprised that fiber is used in anything; all Cable systems are HCF (Hybrid Coax Fiber) at this point, damn near every good audio device has an optical SPDIF (around 650nm wavelength) for DATA transmission (what do you think digital audio is?), and pretty much all backbone's for telecoms are fiber (or microwave).

Now for the expensive bits, the wavelength has something to do with the total possible bandwidth, but for the most part, proper optical cable (not SPDIF) 10Gb isn't exactly breaking a sweat. The receiving/transmitting electronics are very expensive. Just go price out some Cisco 10G SFP's for example. Unless Intel can produce very cheap electronics for this, their idea hasn't a chance of getting off the ground. Considering 1Gb electronics cost a couple hundred bucks a port, 10Gb isn't even worth mentioning. Do CWDM or DWDM and it would possibly be cheaper as you can get multiple 1Gb or even 10Gb wavelength electronics sending over a single fiber pair. Still not cheap though.

To dman3k, if you really want to blow your mind, you can do send/receive over a single fiber, how bout them apples?

To prodigit80, fragile? You can literally lift a car with a good quality single mode fiber (assuming you could find a way to attach it.) It's reinforced with kevlar and depending on its application, the surrounding cable components can be damn near indestructible. If you have optical cable that breaks from bending it, stop buying Monster! But their gold plated optic cables work so well! Seriously, good cable can be tied in a knot and pulled on as hard as two grown men can, untangle it and it works like new. I've seen it and done it myself; still links up and transfers at 1Gb. Just don't scratch the fiber at the ferrule unless you like polishing glass. Only ultra high speeds will be affected by the micro/macro bends you could possibly impose on a properly built fiber. And the plastic "optics" most audio fibers are made from? Even more resilient. The $5 amazon ones are great in fact.

And to anyone that thinks high end fiber costs a lot? A 3 meter single mode (much more expensive than multi mode) costs less than $25. Still more expensive than copper, but it's getting a LOT closer without that silly 100m cable limit. And almost nothing any home user would need to do would require single mode, unless you want to run fiber between your house and your moms house 25 miles away!

jkflipflop98 just awesome!

Sailfish, not exactly how it works unless you want to mux/demux every device, but then it gets kinda ugly.

To ertg43tgdf, the fiber has nothing to play in its potential capacity, only the electronics and the wavelength in use.

Maybe this is why fiber optics hasn't caught on in the consumer world; consumers are dumb to the facts and possibilities of fiber...

Oh yeah, don't crush fiber, it's one real weakness, but good cable construction can prevent all but the worst abuse.

Now if Intel would make optical processors where the data is processed optically! They really should try to make that.
Reasons: faster in clock cycles, less power needed, gives consumers a reason to buy.
Optical processors could really offer huge advantages.
Optical graphic processors could process thousand times more information than todays, elektronics based ones.

I think fiber and light we'll be the future. Multiple colors of lights, so maybe not just binary on one signal. But 10Gb is not really a big deal to talk about right now, since USB 3 is already going to be 5. Cool to think about, but this particular idea for fiber really isn't very exciting.

we'll = will --- Grrrrr no edit.