Intel's Light Peak I/O Due Thursday

It’s been about three years since Intel announced its Light Peak high-speed optical interconnect technology. Now the company appears to be ready to finally ship it–evidently in Apple’s new MacBooks.

Intel is hosting a press briefing tomorrow at which it will “discuss a new technology that is about to appear on the market” and according to CNET that new technology is Light Peak, a single universal replacement for the clutter of cables we currently use to connect our computers to their peripherals and one capable of carrying data at 10 gigabits per second in both directions simultaneously.

The event is rumored to coincide with an update to Apple’s MacBook Pro line, which is further juicing speculation that the new hardware will be the first to implement Light Peak. Apple’s reported name for the standard? Thunderbolt.