SuperSpeed USB 3.0 is ready to go

by Parm Mann on 18 November 2008, 11:41

At a developer conference in California, the USB 3.0 Promoter Group has announced that the specification behind USB 3.0 has been finalised at version 1.0.

USB 3.0, or SuperSpeed USB as it'll be known in consumer devices, was first demonstrated in September 2007. With specification complete, we can now expect SuperSpeed USB controllers to appear as soon as next month, and consumer products will follow in 2010.

The specification, developed by a group consisting of Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Microsoft, NEC, ST-NXP Wireless and Texas Instruments, has been a long time coming and will make its way into the hands of consumers almost a decade after USB 2.0.

SuperSpeed USB devices will offer backward-compatibility with USB 2.0 or USB 1.1 ports, and it's more power-efficient, too, with support for idle, sleep and suspend states.

The most publicised improvement, of course, is that of performance. SuperSpeed USB 3.0 will live up to its name by providing a data transfer rate of up to 5Gbit/s - some ten times faster than USB 2.0.

Official press release: USB 3.0 SPECIFICATION NOW AVAILABLE

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Why is it, I wonder, that phrases like "data transfer rate of up to 5Gbit/s“ make my teeth itch?

It reminds me of ”up to“ 8Mb/s ADSL, or TV adverts offering ”up to“ 50% discount. I mean, a 1% discount, or even a 0% discount, is still ”up to" 50%. All it actually tells you is that it won't be more than 50%, and all that claim in USB3 tells us is similar. It doesn't actually even tell us it'll be faster than USB2, though it probably will. It's marketing gobbledygook.

Could be because you aren't going to get 5Gbit/sec from that nasty little pen drive you've had in the drawer for the past couple of years?

How do you know what's in my drawers? Been peeking?

:D

You'll never know for sure :mrgreen: