SuperSpeed USB 3.0 in action

We dropped by to get a look at Symwave's SuperSpeed promised USB 3.0 setup, and got a real earful on the technology and its potential. Due to start shipping in devices near the end of the year, Symwave's chipset will hold up the device-end of the transaction, communicating with SATA for 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch drives. Since the host end of USB 3.0's plug is fully compatible with USB 2.0 (and 1.0, as it turns out), they expect folks to start buying future-proof USB 3.0 hard drives and wait for computer manufacturers to build it in -- or just grab a PCIe card if they're really enthusiastic. With around 10 times the headroom -- about 500MB a second -- of USB 2.0, the real bottleneck now is hard drive speeds. In the test we saw, the drive averaged around 78MB per second, and we can easily see SSD and RAID scenarios exploring this transfer speed. Their prototype setup to accomplish this was sprawling and a little bit ghetto, but by the time this is shipping in devices the chip will be shrunk down to about the size of a stamp. Action video is after the break.

Gallery: SuperSpeed USB 3.0 in action

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[Nineteen88 @ Jan 10th 2009 8:26AM]

That's Impressive, I hope this technology gets adapted by the masses as soon as possible.

[bill cant fart @ Jan 10th 2009 8:28AM]

Why is he on rapidshare?

[Rob Conway @ Jan 10th 2009 8:30AM]

haha! yeah ghetto is right! i know that's just the test set up, but damn!

[a ham sandwich @ Jan 10th 2009 11:14AM]

i agree. thats the weakest looking CES booth yet. new category: crapbooth? (not the tech, of course. usb 3 is kickass) :P

[Adderz @ Jan 10th 2009 8:50AM]

3.0 needs to hurry the heck up, 2.0 has been around WAY too long. WE are in the media age where 500 and 1TB drives are common...2.0 speeds arent cutting it.

Shame Firewire is too expensive to license and change plugs, they pump out faster successors at a much quicker rate

[tristan88 @ Jan 10th 2009 8:59AM]

precisely what i was thinking.

[3rdSideOfTheStory @ Jan 10th 2009 9:19AM]

Being John 'O'Neil' Malkovich

[felix @ Jan 10th 2009 9:55AM]

humm interesting

[Brian @ Jan 10th 2009 11:11AM]

"Due to start shipping in devices near the end of the year..." That seems so far away.

"3 dot O" and 3 point O" Is it just personal preference then? What about "3 point 0".

[Andreas @ Jan 10th 2009 4:03PM]

lol the entire time i'm watching it I'm just thinking of what a tool he sounds like with his "3 dot O" spiel - you're not going to change what EVERYONE else calls it just by being insistent --- you'll just be annoying......

[STINK @ Jan 10th 2009 11:17AM]

*plops a newspaper on the counter*

"That'll be one-dot-five-oh dollars!"

[MasterAndew @ Jan 10th 2009 11:29AM]

The guy asking the questions (Paul) sounds just like Kevin Smith the Film Director!

[micirin @ Jan 10th 2009 7:10PM]

damn ye
i was listening to the latest SModcast when i watched the video n ye he does sound a lot like Kevin Smith

[pavelbure @ Jan 10th 2009 12:28PM]

80 MB's a sec right now. for the time being it does not seem worth it until drive speeds improve. firewire 800 already does this.

[Ray @ Jan 10th 2009 1:15PM]

The guy says it can reach 500MB/s (MegaBytes) that's way better than firewire 800.
I just wonder why they didn't setup a Raid 0 dual 200MB/s read Intel SSD drive to show the speed instead of a slow single sata drive ?
Is that all you can get to show your new technology at CES ????

[Farris @ Jan 10th 2009 2:25PM]

"... Since the host end of USB 3.0's plug is fully compatible with USB 2.0 (and 1.0, as it turns out) ..."

Shouldn't that read "...(and 1.1, as it turns out)..."?

[FILA @ Jan 10th 2009 4:22PM]

the end of the cable isnt the same connection as the old 1.1 and 2.0's, which sucks, but i guess it dont matter

[xino @ Jan 11th 2009 6:57AM]

There's a wireless USB bruv!

And I can't believe there's a USB Monitor!
I though it was an output device>:@!

[porath @ Jan 10th 2009 7:09PM]

why can't we just call it usb 3?

[LagHater @ Jan 10th 2009 8:30PM]

I won't care until I can get info on possibly better pollrates. Since PS/2 is dead, I need lagless input. Now.

[Duck buck @ Jan 11th 2009 3:04AM]

What is the point I think 2.0 is fast enough.

And now we have to buy new stuff so our "old" stuff can work

[ingle_d23 @ Jan 11th 2009 3:48AM]

cool

[loosely_coupled @ Jan 11th 2009 5:50AM]

Hmm.. That is indeed a terrible looking setup, not to mention why in the hell did they use a single external harddrive?? They should have hooked this thing up to a RAID array to show some serious speed...

[jamesrdoe @ Jan 12th 2009 12:28PM]

Great more crappy USB that eats away at processor power. Firewire is so much better for many devices and it actually has power sufficient to power them.

[xjoshx @ Jan 13th 2009 12:36AM]

I like how the video ends with a serial killer glare.



"You're welcome, Paul." -- *stabs him with USB 3 dot O connector*