USB 3.0 Specifications released

_Jimlad_ · 18 Nov 2008 at 11:46

The new standard for USB (Universal Serial Bus) 3.0, also known as SuperSpeed USB, has released the specifications for its next major upgrade. USB 3.0 is meant to surpass its current predecessor USB 2.0, which supports up to 480 Mbps data transfer. The USB 3.0 will support speeds up to 4.8 Gbps, roughly 10 times faster than USB 2.0.

The new standard is expected to be more power-efficient over its predecessor. Your old devices will not be garbage just yet, since USB 3.0 will be fully backwards compatible with your old devices, supporting USB 1.0, 1.1 and 2.0.

The switch over from USB 2.0 to USB 3.0 on your hardware will hopefully take place late in 2009, where media devices will be the first to see the upgrade in things such as, external hard drives, flash drives, digital cameras, and personal media players.

taken from neowin

Dano · 18 Nov 2008 at 12:02

Nice

Banzai_Joe · 18 Nov 2008 at 12:12

4.8Gbps, would that have impact on the way internal drives work? sataII can't reach that kind of speed can it.
I wonder if an internal usb type header would/could be implemented.

EvilOne · 18 Nov 2008 at 12:31

No hardrive can currently write at those speeds, its some breathing room for when better SSD's come out

_Jimlad_ · 18 Nov 2008 at 12:38

very fast, not due for over a year, but will be worth the wait

Darg · 18 Nov 2008 at 13:28

Finally. Finding writing/reading to USB quite slow given the size of the devices these days.

Filling up my 40gb ext hdd can take 30-40 minutes easily.

Indy500 · 18 Nov 2008 at 13:30

I wonder how close to 600MB\sec the actual interface does, aside from the fact that only a multiple RAID 0 setup of hard drives transfers that fast.

SlyReaper · 18 Nov 2008 at 14:07

This sounds fun. We may end up running more external drives than internal ones.

Greenlizard0 · 18 Nov 2008 at 14:37

SlyReaper said:
This sounds fun. We may end up running more external drives than internal ones.

I probably doubt that.

Good to see, flash drives and whatnot have become so big now - that they take ages to transfer/copy files to and from respectively.

Banzai_Joe · 18 Nov 2008 at 14:48

So, flashdrives are classed as ssd right?
If v.30 comes to them, that will make them uberfast, no?

Indy500 · 18 Nov 2008 at 15:14

k.Jacko said:
So, flashdrives are classed as ssd right?
If v.30 comes to them, that will make them uberfast, no?

USB flash drives (the 1.8' ones) are still not advanced enough to take advantage of USB 2.0 never mind 3.0.

Nick1881 · 18 Nov 2008 at 15:44

This is relevant to my interests.

I don't even own a usb pen atm lol, a usb 3.0 would be worth it though, I can wait

jas07 · 18 Nov 2008 at 15:46

4.8gbps sounds superb, now just get our Sata Drivers faster pls!