New FAQ sheds light on the recently completed USB 3.0 specification.
Last year, I had an interesting discussion with a marketing type for consumer hard drives. It stemmed from the fact that a range of new models completely lacked external Serial ATA (eSATA) support, and when asked why I was told that USB 2.0 was fine. In reality USB 2.0 has been a suboptimal means of connecting a hard drive to a PC ever since eSATA hit the market.
USB 2.0 just doesn’t have the bandwidth to do a hard drive justice. eSATA is the exact same thing as an internal SATA connection. This means that not only is it just as theoretically fast as an internal drive, it doesn’t need to convert the data into a USB signal to get it to the PC. However, eSATA isn’t an elegant solution, with no inherent means of power delivery being the major issue.
This bandwidth problem always crops up as computers and peripherals evolve. USB 1.1 offered 12Mb/s data transfer when it launched in the late 1990s. This was bumped up to 480Mb/s with the launch of USB 2.0 in 2001, and it has stayed there ever since. In that time, it has fought off competitors and ended up as the de facto standard for connecting peripherals to the PC. However, as the eSATA example shows, USB 2.0 is showing its age. This is especially true in areas like external storage and digital video, where bandwidth needs are pushing that deliverable by USB 2.0.
With this in mind, Intel, again, took the role of spearheading the development of a new evolution to the USB standard. Called (unsurprisingly) USB 3.0, this new standard is getting closer to implementation after it was declared finished last year on November the 17th. This standard brings USB into the modern age, incorporating a lot of technology from PCI-Express in order to deliver a massive 5Gb/s transfer rate.
Actual appearance of USB 3.0 hardware will take a year or so. In preparation, industry website Everything USB has put up an excellent FAQ on the USB 3.0 specification. It explains the technology and the reality of how long things will take to get to market. The only thing to take with a grain of salt about the article is the mention of Wireless USB. This noble idea is all but dead thanks to the underlying ultra-wideband technology running into regulatory issues. Thankfully, by using a cable, USB 3.0 won’t have these problems.
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