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Delivering on a pledge it first made at the Intel Developer Conference last September, the chip maker has published the new USB 3 architecture standard in an effort to encourage development of the interface, which is capable of data transfer speeds ten times faster than USB 2.

It was at last year's developer event that HP, Microsoft, NEC, NXP Semiconductors and Texas Instruments joined Intel in forming the USB 3 Promoter Group with the aim of getting products on the market as early as 2009.

The first USB 3 interface examples, unveiled at trade shows earlier this year, are designed to be backwards compatible with older generation interfaces. However, the 3 specification also supports the use of optical connectors.

The draft has been made available under royalty free licence to USB 3 Promoter Group chipmakers and hardware manufacturers that sign an XHCI contributor agreement.