Intel's Light Peak is supposed to be a revolutionary, protocol-agnostic interface with gobs of bandwidth that can consolidate all of a computer's other connections into a single optical wire.
However, according to CNET, the technology may debut with a fairly major omission - fibre-optics. Citing sources in the know, the site claims that 'practical realities' are going to force Intel to use more traditional copper wires for the first generation of the interconnect.
However, the tipster claimed that the bandwidth will not be affected by the change, meaning that the copper cables will still be able to deliver bidirectional speeds of up to ten gigabits-per-second.
Of course, it's unlikely that the interface could reach its peak speed of 100Gbps without an upgrade to fibre-optics, and this will be introduced in a future iteration.
There weren't any details on the reason for the change, though it's possible that Intel is having difficulty mating the optical and silicon components. Nonetheless, if the chip-giant can deliver the same level of performance using copper wires, it may provide a cheaper and simpler way for the technology and manufacturing processes to mature. This could help to boost the interface's adoption, which would make it easier to introduce the 'full-fat' optical version in the future.
Intel's Light Peak is expected to launch in the first-half of 2011, with Apple and Sony rumoured to be working on the initial batch of products that will use it. However, it's possible that the first iteration will only be used internally, rather than as an alternative to something like USB 3.0 or FireWire.
