I personally don't care who initiated it...as long as it works. I think Apple realized that in order to give such an interface a better chance of success, Intel would be the best way to go, with it's dominant market position. And I feel better with Intel doing it...at least it won't end up being some rigidly controlled, proprietary Apple standard. If it were, I can just imagine being told by Apple when you can use it and for what devices (doubtlessly only devices offically approved by Apple would be permitted).

A new standard for everything could be a very good thing, especially considering the very promising ranges with the new interconnect...such a device would be a boon for devices like KVM modules, with everything going over a single connection much like it does now, but providing a great deal more bandwidth than an old 1 Gbps Ethernet cable. But it might end up changing them into nothing more than a fan out device that would split the interface into all the components of a PC. Anyway, it'll be much more simple in any event. Hopefully, one will be able to "team" separate connections together for even faster performance.

I find it somewhat strange that only 10Gbps is being used...I'd argue for an even faster speed as a hedge to ensure that the much faster devices of the future won't be bottlenecked. The maximum bandwidth of the 10 Gbps design would be 1.25 GB/sec, which is very good today, but might be a limiting factor tomorrow. 100 Gbps would be much better...12.5 GB/sec...

Anyway, hopefully this interface arrives sooner, rather than later.