Light Peak = Betamax?

Sony has given their own non-standard, apparently incompatible, implementation to Intel's Thunderbolt port. Is this a replay of Sony's experience with a unique VCR format?

Leaving aside the irrelevant differences (VHS came first and Betamax was not a derivative) the question remains. Will Sony implementing a non-standard version of the technology consign it (and Sony owners) to reduced selection of peripherals and obsolescence?

It's economically inefficient for device makers to come out with two versions of RAIDs, etc., one for Sony and another for Apple. Studios came out with movies in two formats, but only for so long. The same with HD video. Eventually the market picks a single format. True, some software comes out in Windows and Mac versions but both OSs have a substantial installed base on equipment.

Depending on whether Dell, HP, et al eventually use the standard Intel/Apple implementation of Thunderbolt or the Sony optical version may decide which version survives.

Thoughts?

 

I think the "Light Peak" technology on the Z is only used exclusively to connect the external GPU and Blu-ray burner, as other standards such as USB 3.0 might not supply enough power and bandwidth. It's probably not meant for anything else, hence also probably why Sony used a non-standard implementation.

 

There's a lot unknown here.

Let's not assume this is a "non-standard implementation". To me, it looks identical to what Intel showed off months ago. Remember, light peak offers both optical and electric implementations.

But that doesn't really mean much, either. Time will tell

 

Indeed.
...

 

however the usb consortium wasnt really excited about intel using the USB port for it, thus prohibited them of doing so.

and yes only time will tell, for whatever little has been announced or even launched using thunderbolt, we can say that currently its proprietary

that is one of the reasons that I just bought the mbp 13, I got double the weight, but I needed a pc now

 

Here's some trivia. Who invented VHS? The same people that invented beta. Sony. They sold it off because it was an inferior standard. Little did they know that given the choice between cheap and good, people will choose cheap.

 

you missing a lot of facts

- neither sony nor apple version is standard. this is up to intel
- sony used optical, apple used copper. optical is superior but more expensive to implement.
- sony only use the light peak for laptop <--> dock. sony donot intend to have any accessories for light peak.

 

Uhh... optical is inferior? I dunno... i thought it was called lightpeak BECAUSE optical is better... they only used copper because tech can't move fast enough...

 

Seriously optical is inferior? thats why we are changing everything to fiber, replacing the copper wires?

Aside that the lightpeak idea was to have a fiber with copper to transmit data and power respectively

Standard is a harsh word, while I said that there are products coming out for thunderbolt, there probably wont be for sony.

1) the USB consortium vetted any attempt of using the USB connector for thunderbolt purposes, thats why sony said based on lightpeak

2) They have only put that on the flagship model, much like the SSD that trespassed to the S series.

Basically I agree with you that it wont compete with the thunderbolt implementation, however its a remarkably stupid move

 

sorry i was going to say superior lol : )

 

no probs, as I said I agree with most of what you said

 

With Ivy Bridge Intel will be supporting both Lightpeak and USB 3.0, so if it does not take off next year, then maybe.

 

AnandTech - Intel Integrates USB 3.0 into Ivy Bridge Platform, Thunderbolt Optional

no, ivy bridge will only has native usb3.0

 

Wrong. VHS was invented by JVC.

 

You're both right or both wrong depending on how you look at it...assuming Wikipedia is right. Who cares who is right just read it....

Taken from Wikipedia:
Earlier in 1971, JVC engineers Yuma Shiraishi and Shizuo Takano lead the effort in developing the VHS tape format.[6] JVC originally collaborated with Sony Corporation and Matsua Electric (aka Panasonic) in building a home video standard for the Japanese consumer.[7] Soon after, Sony and Matsua broke away from the collaboration effort, in order to work on video recording formats of their own. Sony started working on Betamax, while Matsua started working on VX.

 

Even if there is native Ivy Bridge support for Light Peak/Thunderbolt, there are now two different implementations from two major manufacturers. Do both receive support from third-party vendors? For how long? Or will device makers only provide versions for the most popular implementation?

One factor that will influence the matter is what other PC makers do with respect to the new technology. Do they follow Apple or Sony specifications? or do they ignore LP/T altogether? It's not as if there is currently tremendous consumer demand for a 10 GBS full duplex port.

 

for me the idea of thunderbolt matches of the ultrabook.

Basically ultrabook is a variable tdp cpu, with enough horsepower for you on the go, and when you want more power dock it and get the full fledged power of a dtr.

So to do what sony did with the z in a widespread way is one way to apply the ultrabook concept, however that price point is not meant for widespread adoption of that particular connector, its not even what ultrabook is with its 1k limit price is.

The price of the product and its adoption is what people want when they go to design new peripherals. thus the availability of good peripherals make the connector standard.

but outside the extensions for pc market (soundcards, egpus, NAS, multiple displays or other bandwidth and daisy chained things) there are few things that i would need such a high speed interface.

I actually only use USB for my mouse and thumbdrives, I dont heat soup, use lamps, turn on fans, hand warmers, feet warmers, speakers.... For those you wouldnt even need USB 3

 

i dont think light peak will be use widespread. the only real problem is speed and latency while 10Gbit/s now or 100Gbit/s by this decade, it is far too slow for any modern internal hardware (except ethernet and hdd), PCI Express 2.0 is at 64Gbit/s and it is already bottleneck some highend graphic card. that is why they created the pci-e 3.0, so current state of technology of light peak, thier max speed is around 4 lanes pci-e 2.0 (optical, sony) or 2 lanes (copper, apple) which is far off standard from today Graphic needs.

 

No matter how you look at it, VHS is JVC thing.

Your quote doesn't say a thing that Sony had something to do with VHS. It says that japs manufactures tried to make single standart, and then they split (JVC made VHS, Sony made Betamax, Panasonic VX).
If I go by your logic, we can say that JVC made Betamax and VX too

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JVC
The company is best known for introducing Japan's first televisions, and developing the VHS video recorder.

 

nah, pcie 2.0 aint bottlenecking anything, just look at some benchmarks (read game performance, i.e. fps differences) for the pcie x4 connections, there is barely drop in performance from doing this way instead of the pcie x16, it around 0-10%. The test was done using the gtx 480, so its a high end card.

The need for pcie 3 is because the cards needs more power, and nvidia already reached the peak that the pcie 2 can provide (you have to remember that while the gpu is powered by the whatever pin layout they put in there, the port itself provides power, and can accept power within its limitations)

Im quite lazy right now, so feel free to search the web for the maximum power that the pcie2 can provide

 

no, it is depends if you driving single 1080p that is ture what you are saying but if you have 2 or 3 screen then, that will not be the case

 

what would be the case is the lack of power to drive a game at that high res