Superfast USB 3 devices get go-ahead

 

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Posted on 18 Nov 2008 at 10:28

The USB 3 specification has finally been completed, promising devices with transfer rates ten times faster than currently available.

Dubbed SuperSpeed USB, the new specifcation provides potential data transfer rates of up to 4.8Gb/sec, ten times faster than USB 2.

The announcement came courtesy of the USB Promoter Group, which led development of the specification, and includes Intel, Microsoft, NEC and Texas Instruments on its roster.

The group claims that using the new SuperSpeed USB customers will be able to shift a 25GB HD movie in 70 seconds, compared to the almost 14 minutes it would take using USB 2.

"The first SuperSpeed USB products will likely include data-storage devices such as flash drives, external hard drives, digital music players, and digital cameras," says the group in a statement. "These will be followed by video products and eventually data-acquisition systems that need the high data throughput."

With work on the specification completed manufacturers can now start producing products based on USB 3, a process the group claims could take another two years: "It is anticipated that initial SuperSpeed USB discrete controllers will appear in the second half of 2009 and consumer products will appear in 2010."

All devices will be backward compatible with USB 2, though not the almost ten-year-old USB 1.

Microsoft says it is considering adding USB 3 support into Vista, though no decision has yet being made.

Author: Stuart Turton