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
posted Nov 17th 2008 1:28PM
I can't wait until it hits and I can't start building computers with usb 3.0 fun fun.
WARNING
High Speed USB product plugged into non-high speed port. Your device may not work properly...
Computers with ieee-1394 v3.1 with 3200 Mb/s will be even more fun.
if 2.0 is Hi-Speed and 3.0 is SuperSpeed, what will 4.0 be? Hyper Speed?
Hi-Super-Speed
4.0 will be high xD
Bastard-Speed
Ludicrous speed!
Ludicrous-speed. It goes at the speed of plaid.
Crazy Speed.
ramming speed, of course.
iPeed
SuperHappyLuckyMiracleSpeed!
Speed of light.
It'll be called Chuck Norris Speed.
damnit jon...i was just thinking that, classic spaceballs
ludicrous speed!
It's a bag of hurt!
firewire speed
Oh no! Not Ludicrous speed!
Let's hope by then a fiber solution emerges that's viable for the consumer market.
warp 1.1... can i have an engage anyone?
WARP SPEED
I-got-a-speeding-ticket speed!!!
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
Super Duper Speed !
Maybe now external USB hard drives won't be so unbearably slow. xD
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!
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
KENYAN speed
Doesn't USB3 use DMA? Surely you can ram those speed over classical USB setups, your computer would stall to a standstill.
except that eSATA wouldn't work on most computers, becuase most don't have eSATA ports, which makes the portability mean nothing
> "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.
@Precurse
Incorrect. Firewire devices can be daisy chained into the dozens like the old SCSI of late..
3 USB 3.0 something Macbooks wont have
Yeah, it's too bad you can't daisy-chain USB 3 devices.
Oh, wait.
Nah, MacBooks will have USB 3.0 in 2010. Then in 2011 Jobs will declare it dead and pull it from all future products.
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....
You won't be laughing when apple releases iWire*
*iWire copyright 2008 Listedfirst.com
It's mine now!
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!
This is real nice, but remember it will be running on Windows 7 in 2010.
I hope the new spec will improve the spinning performance of my USB powered desk fan.
rumors on the streets is that it will run more efficiently ;)
I think that it changes the fan from blow to suck...
^^
No, that would be the USB powered RoboProstitute
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.
ha ha ha ha
ashwin we tried getting the captian to wait but hes on a tight schedule. sorry, you;ll have to catch the next boat.
@ Ashwin:
The only thing I can respond to that with is:
WOOOOOSH!
Bastard-Speed
"Sounds lovely -- now if you'll excuse us, we have to go back to mourning the death of FireWire 400."
Oh so Apple removed it from its MacBooks and its now dead? That would mean that the mouse button is dead too..
FireWire 400 is mostly dead. Apple removed it because there aren't a lot of new products that support it. And if you are a pro or a semi pro then the Mac Book pro is for you anyway. Get a bilingual cable and STFU. From wikipedia: "1394 support will likely be all but gone from the market place by 2010, giving way to the faster and more widespread USB 3.0."
And seriously, the whole mouse button thing is getting really old. Apple mice have 2 buttons, and all 2 button mice work just fine in OS X. I suppose you also believe Bill Gates really said that 640K ought to be enough for anybody too?
Along with matte screens, apparently.
I thought the new MacBooks didn't have buttons either, until I used one... the touch pad actually clicks. The entire thing is a button.
@GraigJ
Dude I couldn't have been happier when I switched to Mac..
And that mouse thing was a joke.. you know on usual laptops you can actually SEE the buttons? I bet if you show it to someone who has no clue about it will be like "where's the button?!"
Are you talking about the track pad or the mouse? I can't tell from your post. The mighty mouse works great too, but I found it to be too expensive for my taste. I had no idea how the track pad worked... for about 5 seconds. Sorry, if anyone can't figure out the trackpad on a Mac Book in under 30 seconds they shouldn't be using ANY computer - they should get their grandkids to do it for them...
Anyway the multi-touck track pad is works really well, but, it's still a track pad and therefore not optimal for things like photoshop. My BT Razer mouse works great, and it has 2 buttons, and right click works fine.
So if removing something from the Macbook makes it dead... What does adding something make it? Such as, you know, Windows... under boot camp? Apple apparently brought life to Windows!
eSATA > FireWire 400 & USB 3
Hey uh What ever happend to esata with power? USB3 still has power.
Yes, because I want to plug in my camera, iPod, webcam, scanner, printer and keyboard to an eSata port.
Bus powered external Firewire hard drive > eSATA
> "USB3 still has power."
Will USB3 power an external 3.5" drive? Probably not.
@Michael Scrip: USB 1 and 2 did, so why wouldn't 3?
NOW you're playing with power!
@Michael Scrip: Scratch that. I was living way in the past and thinking of 3.5" floppy drives. They run just fine over USB. 3.5" external HDD, very doubtful.
El oh el, low ranked but whoever did it is too chicken to say why. I'm sorry, what did you not understand about "bus powered external hard drive"? Was it "bus powered"? I bet that's what it was. Until eSATA can do that, Firewire still wins.
@Zak
> "Was it "bus powered"? Until eSATA can do that, Firewire still wins."
Nope. Firewire drives aren't bus-powered either. Maybe for 2.5" drives... but 3.5" drive need 12V.
won't computers come pre-loaded with everything by 2010?
"Everything that can be invented has been invented." - Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. patent office, 1899 (attributed)
Very closed minded my friend. While in the future, more of the improvements will probably be software based, there will always be improvements that require a port like USB or FireWire to implement.
umm that was a joke? obviously nothing can have everything pre-loaded onto it
you are such a cutie pie!
Yes, albeit not Chuck Norris.
Poor Ashwin, who has time and time again showed that he cannot comprehend the use of sarcasm/humor on the internet.
It has got to be difficult to read everything so literal all the time.
regarding the death of firewire statement...
will 3.0 be powerful enough to handle the (a)synchronous conversion of firewire 400 or even 800 via an adapter, in which case i could use my dv camcorder via a usb 3 adapter to transfer video to my macbook of the future?
can it maintain 4.8gbs throughput w/out pegging the CPU? probably not. I'll stay w/ firewire as long as I can
It's kind of weird to call USB 3.0 "backwards compatible".
It's an entirely new interface that's trying to occupy the same connector space as the old one, while still having all the guts of the old interface present.
It's like trying to "supercharge" your hatchback by sticking an additional engine in the rear, while still keeping the original one in the front.
I see you, too, have seen the video of that hyundai with two engines and two transmissions that can spin 360s by putting one tranny in a forward gear and one in a reverse gear.
trannies love to get sticked in the rear
^^^ i just peed a lil :P
Hail to ultimate and almighty exclusive standard serial bus of future.
just a shame we have to wait over 1 full year:( Wont SATA3 be out then? I love my esata external icybox caddy, nice full speed sata connection:) Cant believe lots of ppl still dont know what esata is or have used it. USB2 sucks for external hdd's!
What IS eSATA?! I'm still on IDE. D:
@ZaxCG2
SATA is the successor to PATA, the successor to IDE. eSATA is basically an external connector using the same signal as a SATA connection.
Wonder if motherboards will start including USB3 chipsets soonish. Ive been looking into getting an x58 board here soon be nice to atleast have the ports even though devices wont be able to take advantage of the speed yet as long as its backwards compatible.
2010...
AAAAAAAAAAnd all my gadgets ever are made redundant.
So...it keeps saying devices by 2010, will mother boards be mid 2009? I want to build a new pc, but I've been waiting for a board with USB 3.0, how much longer will I have to wait?
Why are you waiting for a motherboard with USB 3.0?
If you must have USB 3.0, just buy a USB 3.0 card... oh wait.. they don't exist, nor do any devices...
BAH! No DMA! You'd better buy a new Extreme Core i7 965 if you have a lot of USB 3.0 devices streaming data, because all that data is PIO.
I'll take Firewire S3200 please! Lot's of them! Are you motherboard & peripheral OEMs listening?
From the looks of it USB 3.0 will be backwards compatible but have a different end plug to distinguish. Might need to buy new cables to take advantage of the speed.
I'm also thinking that USB 3.0 devices may or may not work on a USB 2.0 port...
If USB 3.0 devices do not work with USB 2.0 adoption might take a while so lets hope it is.
I guess they will never fix the annoying problem where you have a 50% chance of plugging the connector in wrong.
Will it be more CPU efficient than USB 2.0 even though it doesn't use DMA like firewire?
Well, macs need to be more upgradeable... I'm afraid...
I bet USB 3.0 devices are gonna cost a million Spacebucks.
I doult they will cost that much, i might be wrong but i dont remember 2.0 costing alot more then 1.0 usb when first came out.
As an honest tech geek, I can say that this wire is beautiful, and I can't wait to be
able to have the priveledge of using it.
I still don't understand if USB 3.0 requires a dedicated motherboard or if it will be available on a PCI card? Anybody have a clue? Definitely eSata is the way to go for external HD's, but the new usb will be way faster for thumbdrives, cameras and the like. At least if they are designed for it. Will non 3.0 devices see any speed increase? Why am I asking so many questions?
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