Wow! That's an incredibly useful port! I had never heard of this port type before but I'm immediately in favor of it. Especially as a universal base/stand port for small devices!

the port seems to be fairly recent (feb. 2010 says the wiki article).

would be nice if it becomes somewhat standard for all kinds of portable devices (tho i wonder about the choice of displayport over hdmi).

This is the first I'm learning about it as well! I agree, it seems like a great idea.

The iPhone/iPad line has seen a tremendous amount of peripheral support, thanks to it's all encompassing connector. If the industry rallies behind this connector, then devices like the Galaxy Tab will enjoy the same peripheral support (some of which are genuinely useful, IMO). It's great to hear that the Dell Streak is using it, and the Galaxy Tab may be next.

On the other hand, I'm a *big* fan of wireless, but as the port supplies power and wireless power isn't as of yet widespread, the PDMI port seems like a great alternative. I suspect a very high-bandwidth close-proximity wireless data/power spec and chipset would have to surface before this is considered realistic, and it is most certainly some time before that happens.

PDMI seems like a great addition! Thanks for pointing it out!

I'll be even *more* stoked when Intel's LightPeak surfaces as an ultra-high bandwidth connector for portable/fixed devices. Initial implementations reached 10Gbs, and claimed speeds are up to 100Gbs! Either speed is more than enough to run many, many, many uncompressed HD streams simultaneously. This is enough to meet the data demands of any current mobile technology, and should be the last connector that's needed (in a long time) for mobile devices. The best part is that it's optical, so the connector can remain unchanged while the speed continues to improve.

I just read this on the Lightpeak wiki page:

If this is accurate, it looks as though Apple will be among the first to market with lightpeak in their upcoming devices. This is a smart move, and once again, one that the industry should take notice of. Lightpeak will dramatically shrink the connector and increase the speed. Four or five tiny LP ports should be enough for a laptop, and one for a mobile. Even more crazy is a single port may be arranged in a daisy chain and still provide ample bandwidth to multiple devices!

In addition, intel is said to be bundling copper cables along with the optical cable to make it possible for power transfer. This will obsolete (spec wise anyway) USB/HDMI/DisplayPort/PDMI/eSATA/etc overnight. The connector is ultra-low power, and the chipset footprint is tiny.

One cable to rule them all!

Ok, I'll stop with the Light peak, but what makes this even MORE interesting, is using this system for intra-bus communication. If it can be made small enough, and cheap enough, it can dramatically shrink electronic sizes with only a few islands of chips, and LP interconnects between them. Sounds like my kind of magic.

Exciting.

while light peak is technically interesting, i worry about intel using it as leverage to control the direction of the tech world. They did try to get a 1 year exclucive on usb3 host chips for instance.

My guess is that bids to control the technology will potentially hurt its rate of adoption unless intel plans to price it low and fully meet demand. If they do, then they secure a position of incredible influence (for better or worse) and decrease competitive pressures.

I'm not sure how I feel.

This is because Intel enjoys using Apple as a showcase for their newest consumer-level technologies. This is also why no Intel chipset supports USB 3.0 (which is also why no Apple system has USB 3.0.) This does not make Apple smart, simply a willing guinea pig for a likely successful experiment.

The connector shares form factor with USB (beyond the Intel demo) IIRC, giving support for older USB devices along with newer LP devices.

Err, I think you mean the -chipset- has a tiny footprint (which is unremarkable,) and the connector -might- for endpoint LP devices.

Believe me, I can't wait to see what this does for interconnects, but I'll be waiting for Linux/Windows support and a PCIe card. I've bought one mac, and I'm good for another, well, long long while.

I don't recall that at all. I -do- recall AMD and some 3rd parties getting fussy about the spec, though. Don't forget that Intel are basically the lead design on pretty much every major PC bus in use today (USB, PCI-Express) and hold huge amounts of leverage within them, and Light Peak changes nothing with respect to that. They'll play nice regardless though, lest the EU and DoJ come down on them.

Intel will integrate it into their chipsets. They'll probably also release a spec, like with USB, so 3rd party vendors can create their own interfaces.

I just saw the video , well I certainly don't like the idea of having a screen that is 7 ' big and a phone for which I would have to get a backpack to carry around.
I agree that the specs are awesome but still... that big a phone??

I already have a 7” tablet, the SmartQ 7, and that is definitely not pocketable. Even if the Samsung proves to be slightly lighter and slimmer, there is no getting round the 7” screen length and width. So a bag is necessary.

The limit of pocketability has been reached with the 5” Dell Streak.
While the 7” screen is preferable to the 5”, the trade off to be faced is the choice between pocket feasible or bag only.

Having said that, don’t underestimate the capability of the 5” screen. Contrary to opinions that I have seen posted, it really is much more useful that the 4.3” screen on the N800.

Be that as it may, the Samsung is shaping up such that I just want one. My Dell Streak will make the purchase much harder to justify. Techno lust tends to defy logic so who knows.