AMD and NVIDIA accuse Intel of withholding USB 3.0 specs

We've seen some early USB 3.0 gear here and there, but it looks like the successor to everyone's favorite serial bus is off to a rocky start, with AMD and NVIDIA claiming that Intel is withholding crucial specifications necessary to develop an open host controller. Although Intel apparently already has working silicon, it's not willing to share -- so AMD and NVIDIA are working on a competing spec that will be introduced alongside Intel's. The first meeting of the alternate spec group is scheduled for next week, according to sources, but there could be problems with this diverging roadmap down the line: sources close to Intel say that the only reason the specs haven't been released is that they're not done, and that Intel doesn't want incompatible chipsets based on different versions of the spec out there. Sure, sure, but we're certain both sides are playing a little fast and loose with reality here -- good thing all these fools have until 2010 to get this sorted.

[Via Everything USB]

[Danakin @ Jun 11th 2008 4:20PM]

come on Intel, can't you play nice so the rest of us can benefit?

[alexmueller @ Jun 11th 2008 5:44PM]

You need to phrase it better. Now kids play nicely or there will be no playtime after dinner.

[iH8Engadget @ Jun 11th 2008 10:59PM]

Yay ^^.... Blue Ray Vs. HD-DVD part two. Whipee.... *rolls eyes*

[Low Ranked @ Jun 11th 2008 4:21PM]

Great. Looks like the 'Universal' part has flown out the window.

[Wii60 @ Jun 11th 2008 4:40PM]

I think it's still safe. USB 3.0 will be backwards compatible with the old 1.0 and 2.0 devices, that alone will secure it's place.

[Flashpoint @ Jun 11th 2008 4:57PM]

wii


YES USB will be backwards compatible with USB 1.0 and 2.0 but guess what? We are gonna end up being forced to upgrade all our equiptment or we'll get those

WARNING THIS DEVICE REQUIRES USB 3.0 - INSUFFICIENT POWER

[bk7 @ Jun 11th 2008 6:40PM]

For once im actually positive ranking Flashpoint on this one..
I was an early adopter of usb 2.0, even went through the pularva of memory sticks that didnt even function on older usb 1.0s because of insufficient power.

[THizzle7XU @ Jun 11th 2008 8:02PM]

Where they NOT paying attention the last two years with the whole, oh I don't know...HD-DVD vs Blu-ray thing?

Agreeing on standards is a good thing. Even for the major companies. Just ask Toshiba's accountant.

[mabhatter @ Jun 11th 2008 10:14PM]

the power is an important part of the spec. Many devices don't work because USB 2 can't deliver enough power. USB 3 should eliminate extra "wall warts" for things... like the Macbook Air's USB Super drive. What they SHOULD add is the ability to "multitap" a connection with an inline power supply (power supply in the USB plug between the PC and device from another port or adapter. That way as many external & mobile device are standardizing on USB 2 power specs, we can continue to provide extra "doggles" for backward compatibility but not have to have Separate DC ports.

[Kris @ Jun 11th 2008 4:21PM]

Jesus Intel isn't releasing the specs so they're going to roll their own? Fuck that! I don't want to have to find a compatible chipset for my devices or buy an extra PCI / PCI-E card to plug in my new iPod or Zune.

All of these companies need to get their shit together and standardize preferably through a standards organization.

[Low Ranked @ Jun 11th 2008 4:24PM]

Uh, IEEE.

[Tony Rayo @ Jun 11th 2008 4:46PM]

I was thinking the same thing, doesn't USB 3.x need to become an IEEE standard before any products are released, even a draft standard. Otherwise you could be left with unusable hardware.

[bugster @ Jun 11th 2008 9:43PM]

I agree, the IEEE will smack them down, ummm except that USB isn't an IEEE standard. It's governed by the USB Implementers Forum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_Implementers_Forum

and if you check their latest bulletin on USB 3.0 :

http://www.usb.org/press/press20/2007_11_28_usb30promotergroup.pdf

You;ll notice that the main contact listed for the group in charge of ratifying the standard works for Intel, and neither AMD nor NVIDIA is on the board.
So I'm thinking Intel gets to do whatever it wants with USB3.0

[Jay @ Jun 11th 2008 4:21PM]

Great now we'll end up with USB+ and USB- devices.

[System48 @ Jun 11th 2008 4:29PM]

Maybe not, we'll just have to wait until USB 3.1 comes out.

[someguy7234 @ Jun 11th 2008 5:46PM]

I for one support HD-USB... Just like I support HD-DVD....

On an unrelated note-does anyone want to buy my $300 HD-DVD player? and all 6 of the HD-DVD's that I have?

[Ian @ Jun 11th 2008 8:00PM]

sure ill give you 20 bucks for the player and 40 for the movies..

[orky @ Jun 11th 2008 4:25PM]

I'm sure AMD wants to bring as much heat as possible on Intel with all the antitrust issues Intel has been dealing with.

Competition always wants the guy ahead to slow down so that they can catch up.

[kjb434 @ Jun 11th 2008 4:42PM]

I think you hit the hammer on the nail with your comment.

Intel is doing anything wrong in this instance, but AMD helps themselves look better by saying Intel is acting like the anti-trust suit claims.

It's all a publicity warfare campaign.

[Randy @ Jun 11th 2008 4:25PM]

Intel, If it's not finalized then why won't you share what you have already with AMD, with the understanding that it's a Work in progress? Oh, I know, so you can get a head start on the Devices and shutout AMD.

Nice. Douche.

[Dustin @ Jun 11th 2008 4:39PM]

Because Intel may have to change critical parts of the spec, then AMD may whine that Intel gave them bad information and misled them and is anti-competitive and kicked their dog.

[Zorque @ Jun 11th 2008 4:39PM]

Because if they give them an incomplete specification, they might diverge from the base that Intel's already created and still wind up with a different spec entirely.

Unfortunately, that looks like it's happening anyway, so I dunno.

[Striker @ Jun 11th 2008 4:25PM]

Come on, we don't need another format war, this would be worse than a disc war, because you could get a disc combo player, but this is a data transfer bus and protocol, and you can't have two Universal Serial Bus specs as it would throw the computer world into chaos, and wasn't this why USB created?

[Mile @ Jun 11th 2008 4:36PM]

Tastes Great! Less Filling!

[XGM @ Jun 11th 2008 4:45PM]

FireWire FTW !!!

[Jon Doe. @ Jun 11th 2008 7:59PM]

3x the price FTL.

Yes I love my External FW 800 drive. However the price was insane.

[XGM @ Jun 11th 2008 8:12PM]

I have a few FW 800 drives and honestly they were only fractionally more then similar ones with just FW 400.

[Jimmy @ Jun 11th 2008 4:53PM]

Esata, Esata II, FW 400, FW 800, FW 1600, FW 3200, USB 1.0/1.1, USB 2.0, USB 3.0, and now the possibility of another one?! AAAHHHHH!

This is on a completely random tangent, but alsoL HDMI VGA COMPONENT MINIDVI DVI S-VIDEO DISPLAY PORT COMPOSITE AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!! all to do one thing: display images.

[Jimmy @ Jun 11th 2008 4:54PM]

I'm probably missing something here as well, so feel free to add to this list ;)

[Catsceo @ Jun 11th 2008 5:14PM]

There is no such thing as FW1600 BTW, they skipped it and went straight to FW3200

[kal326 @ Jun 11th 2008 5:23PM]

That and you left out all of the SCSI world:
SCSI-1, Fast SCSI, Fast-Wide SCSI, Ultra SCSI, Ultra Wide SCSI, Ultra2 SCSI, Ultra2 Wide SCSI, Ultra3 SCSI, Ultra-320 SCSI, Ultra-640 SCSI. Add on top of that all the differant methods of attachment, 50pin, 60 pin, SAS, and probably even a few more.

[Danger @ Jun 11th 2008 5:26PM]

DVI-I Single, DVI-I Dual, DVI-D Single, DVI-I Dual, DVI-A, DVI-DL, DMS-59, just to put out some more video connectors. This has caused some headache while ordering and setting up machines at work.

[deyanimay @ Jun 11th 2008 6:01PM]

what about the ata s and pci s

[SoloSalsa @ Jun 19th 2008 2:22PM]

There most definitely are more SCSI connectors: Apple decided to make all of their own D-sub connectors instead of sticking to the standard. Particularly when they used DB25, identical to parallel (printer) ports.

[toxicpiano @ Jun 11th 2008 4:57PM]

Well this format war is going to be a whole barrel of laughs

[captainpease @ Jun 11th 2008 5:05PM]

God save us all from another HD/Blu-ray disaster!

[Randy @ Jun 11th 2008 5:09PM]

Dear AMD and NVIDIA, if you truly want to create a competitive specification, fiber optics is where it is at.

[Jon Doe. @ Jun 11th 2008 8:02PM]

*sighs* USB 3 IS fiber.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9780794-7.html

The copper is for backwards compat.

[Chris @ Jun 11th 2008 5:20PM]

Man, these guys are serious!

You've got two competitors, AMD and nVidia teaming up to go against AMD's other competitor, Intel.

[ijyt @ Jun 11th 2008 5:23PM]

Intel is starting to sound like a whiney little bitch.

[Podaman @ Jun 11th 2008 5:27PM]

All three of them are being A holes and Fing over the consumer.

Going to B my L on all of their T's.

[Low Ranked @ Jun 11th 2008 5:31PM]

Do you always abbreviate single words?

[Podaman @ Jun 11th 2008 5:36PM]

N

[Justin @ Jun 11th 2008 5:30PM]

Again, I want nVidia to buy AMD/ATi and create CPUs and GPUs to compete solely against Intel.

[David @ Jun 11th 2008 6:17PM]

I don't think Intel could compete with ati / nvidia combined in the graphics segment.

[xB Owner @ Jun 11th 2008 8:22PM]

Horrible line of thought.

Why in the world would you want to the two biggest (and pretty much only) gpu manufacturers in the world to become one? It is competition that breeds innovation.

[Chris Macdonald @ Jun 11th 2008 5:39PM]

Is the cord or connector any different from 2.0?

[Reid B. @ Jun 11th 2008 5:51PM]

It uses a Blue Laser so it's better. (roll eyes)

[deyanimay @ Jun 11th 2008 6:04PM]

Thats what she said.

[Zane @ Jun 11th 2008 11:50PM]

Uses technology from Monster cable to make it 'look' better.
/sarcasm