Corning

Corning has begun selling a USB 3.0 optical cable that delivers theoretical peak speeds of 5 gigabits-per-second up to 30 meters.

The "USB 3.Optical" cables are thinner (by as much as 50 percent) and lighter (by as much as 80 percent) than comparable copper cables, Corning said. And they can withstand bending, squeezing, and tangling without damage, according to the company.

"Imagine having your computer at your workstation and the whir of back-up hard drives, printers, and other noisy peripherals in an entirely different room -- and still benefiting from unbelievable transmission speeds," Bernhard Deutsch, a vice president at Corning, said in a statement.

And Corning is targeting future technology too for both USB and Thunderbolt cables.

"With...new consumer applications driving consumer bandwidth demands to 10+ Gb/s, consumers are demanding innovative footprints and smaller cables. Optical fiber connectivity solutions are able to address these demands and move both the Thunderbolt and USB specs into the future. We are assessing the viability of providing the market with solutions for other protocols in the future," Corning said in a statement.

In addition to storage drives and digital cameras/camcorders, Corning is also targeting point-of-sale systems at retail locations, remote consoles in health care, and industrial automation settings.

Pricing starts at $109.99.