When Intel unveiled its Light Peak optical interconnect (video) at IDF earlier this week, many noticed that the demonstration computer used to show the new technology was in fact a hackintosh. Well, thanks to Engadget we now know why: Apple is very, very involved in the conception of Light Peak. Let's take this opportunity to look at some of Apple's other connection standards from the past.
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Member since:2006-01-16
OEM's got on board with USB when x86 chipset manufacturers started putting support for USB into their chipsets. The most important chipset manufacturer that did that, and drove adoption for the PC masses, was Intel.
As Apple wasn't a consumer of x86 chipsets when they came up with and later introduced Firewire the only option for OEMs was a separate chip to support Firewire for quite some time. That made it expensive for them to add at a time when prices were being driven rapidly downwards. There was also the mistaken idea that USB is "good enough"... Anyone that's used to Firewire that has ever had to copy multiple gigabytes off a USB drive knows that's a bunch of crap, but marketing droids and folks that are extremely budget sensitive just don't get that.
Member since:2006-01-10
Member since:2005-11-09
Member since:
2006-01-10
Apple seems to search for a universal firewire replacement, and this time they have Intel on board.
Unless the OEM's (Dell, Acer, HP) get on board with this though it will just be another niche market that will fizzle out. Sony and Apple were the only 2 OEM's I remember really pushing firewire which is one reason why I think it never caught on to the mainstream.