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Light Peak high-speed connection tech coming very soon to Macs?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izNoF1SWtSg&w=560&h=349]

CNET reports that Apple will soon unveil a new high-speed connection technology for their devices based on Intel’s Light Peak technology. Intel has said that Light Peak-enabled products will begin making their way to shelves during the first half of 2011 making the time of this report perfect. Although Apple’s new connector will be based on Light Peak, Apple will reportedly brand it under their own name.

Light Peak is significantly faster than any of the other connection technology currently on the market. For comparison, Firewire 400 is 400 Mbps, Firewire 800 is 800 Mbps, USB2 is 480 Mbps, and USB3 (which never appeared on a Mac) is 3.2 Gbps. Light Peak comes in at a whopping 10 Gbps making it close to three times faster than USB 3, and over 10 times faster than Firewire 800. Although this won’t matter too much for Mac users, Light Peak can transfer an entire Blu-Ray movie in under 30 seconds.

Light Peak’s incredible speed and support from Intel seems to be the reason that Apple decided to wait for the technology to be ready for primetime versus jumping aboard the USB 3.0 ship. Steve Jobs went on record to a customer saying:

We don’t see USB 3 taking off at this time. No support from Intel, for example.

Apple is expected to release a new line of MacBook Pros this upcoming Thursday, February 24th with Intel’s Sandy Bridge processors. It is currently unclear whether or not these new notebooks from Apple will sport Light Peak connectors. Intel has said that their new Sandy Bridge processors, reportedly coming to Macs, do not support USB 3.0, adding credence to a Sandy Bridge-based-Mac with Light Peak connectors.

Apple is also expected to be updating their iMac line of desktop computers, so if USB3 does not come included with the new MacBook Pro line, perhaps it will make its Mac debut sometime in the first half of this year in the refreshed iMacs. Be sure to watch the video above showing everything this promising Light Peak technology has to offer.

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