Tech | November 17, 2008 | 38 comments

USB 3.0 to deliver a tenfold speed increase

source: http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/11/superspeed-us-1.html

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

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 we'll be able to rip music, video, photos from the vast array of peripherals we 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 we 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.
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