Endless Paradigm

Fasten your seat belts — data transfer is going into overdrive.

Quote:The ubiquitous Universal Serial Bus, better known as USB, is on track to make its first major upgrade in eight years — a tenfold speed increase over the current USB 2.0 standard. That means wee'll be able to rip  music, video, photos from the vast array of peripherals wee connect to our computers much more quickly, and it makes such up-and-coming devices as HD video cameras that much more practical.

USB 3.0 will also deliver greater power efficiency and the ability to recharge a wider variety of gadgets — and it will most likely mean the death of the competing standard known as FireWire.

To get a sense of the speed increase, consider this: Under USB 2.0 it takes about 10 minutes to transfer a high-def video from a Blu-ray disc. With USB 3.0, it will take just about a minute.  

"What the user will see is really a much faster response time, less waiting, more productivity," says Patrick Moorhead, vice president of advanced marketing at AMD, one of the supporters of the USB 3.0 standard.

But none of this will happen tomorrow. The first USB 3.0 devices probably won't show up until the end of 2009 or early 2010, say analysts. Users can get a glimpse into future devices sporting SuperSpeed USB as early as the annual Consumer Electronics Show in January, and Wired.com will be there.

"The first places that you will see this show up is where you get the biggest benefits — HD video cameras and hard drives," says Moorhead.

The USB Implementers Forum, a nonprofit group founded by companies to promote the standard, will announce Monday the final set of specs that will clear the way for the adoption of USB 3.0 by device and component manufacturers.

"USB 3.0 will take USB 2.0 to the next level and take away performance as an issue for data transfer in many devices," says Brian O'Rourke, an analyst with research firm In-Stat. "USB 3.0 will make it even more pervasive across devices than it is today."

Since the USB specification was first introduced in 1996, it has changed the way wee interact with our computers. USB has allowed everything from keyboards, mouse, PDAs, printers, digital cameras and personal media players — pretty much the entire spectrum of consumer electronics — to be connected to a host PC using a single standardized socket.

It has also made the process truly plug-and-play. Devices can be connected and disconnected without having to reboot the host computer and the technology offered perks such as allowing for many devices to be charged using the USB socket with no need for individual device drivers to be installed first.

Not surprisingly, USB's ease of use and capabilities has meant it has become nearly ubiquitous. More than 2.6 billion USB-enabled devices were shipped in 2007, estimates research firm In-Stat.

And USB's star will continue to rise, says the firm. Nearly four billion USB-enabled devices are expected to ship by 2012. Its ubiquity has meant that some manufacturers use USB ports and plugs for recharging devices such as Bluetooth headsets and phones without utilizing its data-transfer capabilities.

But USB 2.0 is getting a bit long in the tooth, with its slow speed, inefficient power usage and relatively small wattage. The new standard takes aim at all of those shortcomings.

more info: USB 3.0 to Deliver a Tenfold Speed Increase

well maybe a 1GB video can take up a split seconds, ROFL

very old news ive even seen pictures of si
some usb 3 cables

squee666 Wrote:very old news ive even seen pictures of si
some usb 3 cables

qft. I hate to sound like Nacos, but this is ancient. Seriously, I read about it on Gizmodo during the summer.

wouldnt this make USB faster than SATA??


USB 3.0 will be 4,8GBps...SATA is still only 3GBps....6GBps is in draft though for the end of the year


* roberth drools at the thought of 6GB transfer speeds

...wait a minute...

so my laptop is just going to have more outdated poo poo sooner
great...

well i thought so that its old, but anyway i post it there

i still do own ah USB 1.0 so my usb is very outdated,

western digital external hard drive is already using it.

@roberth,
usb 3.0 will be 320mbps, not 4.8gbps.
its ten times faster than 2.0 (32mbps)
the 4.8gbps info was from when they were going to put optic fibres or something in it, but decided it would be too expensive.

isn't the current limit of usb 480Mbps?

Chroma Wrote:

squee666 Wrote:very old news ive even seen pictures of si
some usb 3 cables

qft. I hate to sound like Nacos, but this is ancient. Seriously, I read about it on Gizmodo during the summer.

So is this image relevant