SuperSpeed USB 3.0 spec officially released, first chipset demonstrated

It's been nearly a year since we first saw the USB 3.0 connector make an appearance at CES, and after months of corporate infighting, spec-polishing, and technical navel-gazing, the future of consumer peripheral connectivity is here -- in the form of complete specifications and a demo. Yeah, so maybe SuperSpeed USB isn't making the most dramatic entrance ever, but hey, it doesn't have to with 4.8Gbps transfer speeds, improved power management, and backwards compatibility with USB 2.0 along for the ride. As expected, the first wave of devices won't hit until 2010, but Symwave's giving attendees of this week's SuperSpeed conference a taste of tomorrow with a demo of the Quasar USB 3.0 chipset, which is targeted at "sync-and-go" devices like phones and media players. Sounds lovely -- now if you'll excuse us, we have to go back to mourning the death of FireWire 400.

[Via Gearlog]

Read - SuperSpeed USB 3.0 spec released
Read - Symwave demos first USB 3.0 physical layer device

[Christopher @ Nov 17th 2008 1:33PM]

I can't wait until it hits and I can't start building computers with usb 3.0 fun fun.

[Flashpoint @ Nov 17th 2008 1:50PM]

WARNING

High Speed USB product plugged into non-high speed port. Your device may not work properly...

[I LOVE THE CAPS LOCK KEY @ Nov 17th 2008 9:44PM]

Computers with ieee-1394 v3.1 with 3200 Mb/s will be even more fun.

[A non eMous @ Nov 17th 2008 1:34PM]

if 2.0 is Hi-Speed and 3.0 is SuperSpeed, what will 4.0 be? Hyper Speed?

[Erb @ Nov 17th 2008 1:36PM]

Hi-Super-Speed

[Patriks7 @ Nov 17th 2008 1:41PM]

4.0 will be high xD

[zfurie @ Nov 17th 2008 1:42PM]

Bastard-Speed

[JonZ @ Nov 17th 2008 1:44PM]

Ludicrous speed!

[Lord Helmet @ Nov 17th 2008 1:48PM]

Ludicrous-speed. It goes at the speed of plaid.

[atomicthumbs @ Nov 17th 2008 1:47PM]

Crazy Speed.

[elbarto83 @ Nov 17th 2008 1:48PM]

ramming speed, of course.

[zfurie @ Nov 17th 2008 1:51PM]

iPeed

[UnixSystemsEngineer @ Nov 17th 2008 2:05PM]

SuperHappyLuckyMiracleSpeed!

[AlDeezy @ Nov 17th 2008 2:12PM]

Speed of light.

[holycow @ Nov 17th 2008 2:23PM]

It'll be called Chuck Norris Speed.

[SimbaDogg @ Nov 17th 2008 2:40PM]

damnit jon...i was just thinking that, classic spaceballs

[erfon @ Nov 17th 2008 3:06PM]

ludicrous speed!

[Surprised @ Nov 17th 2008 3:13PM]

It's a bag of hurt!

[smith,john @ Nov 17th 2008 3:23PM]

firewire speed

[Mikey @ Nov 17th 2008 4:56PM]

Oh no! Not Ludicrous speed!

[kitty @ Nov 17th 2008 7:05PM]

Let's hope by then a fiber solution emerges that's viable for the consumer market.

[torm @ Nov 17th 2008 7:33PM]

warp 1.1... can i have an engage anyone?

[art @ Nov 17th 2008 8:16PM]

WARP SPEED

[strawbrian @ Nov 17th 2008 10:51PM]

I-got-a-speeding-ticket speed!!!

[prakash @ Nov 18th 2008 6:06AM]

2.0 high speed
3.0 super speed
4.0 sonic speed
5.0 light speed ....

how will it be..... don't worry we will definetly achieve it ......

all the best and great welcome to USB3.0 let beat the firewire

[Richard @ Dec 23rd 2008 6:37PM]

Super Duper Speed !

[Erb @ Nov 17th 2008 1:35PM]

Maybe now external USB hard drives won't be so unbearably slow. xD

[Michael Scrip @ Nov 17th 2008 2:04PM]

No. Future USB drives will be faster... in 2010. It won't help drives you already have.

Why wait? Go eSATA and enjoy fast speeds now!

[Precurse @ Nov 17th 2008 2:33PM]

It's true.. It's full duplex, meaning that the computer gets its own dedicated lane to the device and vice versa. It allows for copper AND fiber cables, meaning your devices will be able to reach longer distances and it now makes sense to hookup 2 computers together to transfer data (at least until 10GigE makes its debut for consumer computers).

The one advantage Firewire has over USB, is the fact it uses DMA (Direct Memory Access), which results in less overhead and CPU usage. However, you can plug in many more USB devices to a system than Firewire (it's the trade off).

I, for one, welcome our new USB3 overlords

[danrod @ Nov 17th 2008 2:57PM]

KENYAN speed

[Wwhat @ Nov 18th 2008 4:24AM]

Doesn't USB3 use DMA? Surely you can ram those speed over classical USB setups, your computer would stall to a standstill.

[Riley @ Nov 18th 2008 6:14AM]

except that eSATA wouldn't work on most computers, becuase most don't have eSATA ports, which makes the portability mean nothing

[Michael Scrip @ Nov 18th 2008 1:55PM]

> "except that eSATA wouldn't work on most computers, becuase most don't have eSATA ports, which makes the portability mean nothing"

Get an enclosure that has both USB and eSATA.

eSATA speed when you're at home... USB portability when you're on the road.

[loosely_coupled @ Nov 20th 2008 7:31PM]

@Precurse

Incorrect. Firewire devices can be daisy chained into the dozens like the old SCSI of late..

[From My Cube @ Nov 17th 2008 1:35PM]

3 USB 3.0 something Macbooks wont have

[Zak @ Nov 17th 2008 1:56PM]

Yeah, it's too bad you can't daisy-chain USB 3 devices.




Oh, wait.

[UnixSystemsEngineer @ Nov 17th 2008 2:07PM]

Nah, MacBooks will have USB 3.0 in 2010. Then in 2011 Jobs will declare it dead and pull it from all future products.

[y3k.nik @ Nov 17th 2008 2:39PM]

Unless Jobs calls USB 3 a bag of hurt and makes his own holy port.. and then calls USB 3 limited to justify the holy port....

[Testies, Testies, 1, 2... 3? @ Nov 17th 2008 6:36PM]

You won't be laughing when apple releases iWire*


*iWire copyright 2008 Listedfirst.com

It's mine now!

[ITRanger @ Nov 17th 2008 1:36PM]

2010! That's like a whole year and a bit away!

I need Asus to fit this to one of their trusty EEEpcs right now. They've made a name for themselves with the ever increasing netbook product revisions.

GO ASUS!

[Larry @ Nov 17th 2008 1:36PM]

This is real nice, but remember it will be running on Windows 7 in 2010.

[zfurie @ Nov 17th 2008 1:38PM]

I hope the new spec will improve the spinning performance of my USB powered desk fan.

[wako @ Nov 17th 2008 1:48PM]

rumors on the streets is that it will run more efficiently ;)

[Larry @ Nov 17th 2008 1:55PM]

I think that it changes the fan from blow to suck...

[monkey @ Nov 17th 2008 2:13PM]

^^

No, that would be the USB powered RoboProstitute

[Ashwin @ Nov 17th 2008 3:12PM]

I don't think it will. The performance of a fan is limited by the power the port can supply, not by transfer speeds. I don't think they will go above the current 2.5W supplied by the port. I do think they should it just a bit, maybe to 5W.

[joey @ Nov 17th 2008 4:50PM]

ha ha ha ha

[thatrotierkid @ Nov 17th 2008 5:10PM]

ashwin we tried getting the captian to wait but hes on a tight schedule. sorry, you;ll have to catch the next boat.

[Verified Insanity @ Nov 17th 2008 9:10PM]

@ Ashwin:

The only thing I can respond to that with is:

WOOOOOSH!

[zfurie @ Nov 17th 2008 1:41PM]

Bastard-Speed