NEC readies first USB 3 chips

 

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By Simon Aughton

Posted on 19 May 2009 at 12:24

NEC has begun production of the first hardware controller for the new USB 3 standard.

The company will begin shipping the controllers to device manufacturers next month, enabling them to begin building peripherals such as external hard drives capable of taking advantage of USB 3's much higher data transfer rates.

The USB 3.0 Promoter Group is pushing the new standard as SuperSpeed USB and not without good reason. Where USB 2 tops out at 480Mbits/sec, the new standard will be up to ten times faster.

USB 3 also enables computers to send much more power to devices, so many more peripherals should be able to dispense with the power cable.

On the downside, USB 3 ports won't support original USB devices, though USB 2 will still be catered for. However, the NEC chip allows hardware designers to build in their own support for USB 1 devices.

The next stage in USB's development is a new version of Wireless USB, which aims to overcome the problems with power efficiency and device recognition that blighted the first release of the specification.

The Wireless USB Promoter Group is aiming to complete v1.1 of the spec by the middle of this year.