NEC Japan announces its SuperSpeed USB 3.0 controller

Have you got that USB 3.0 cable on your hope chest, just killing time until your SuperSpeed dreams become a reality? Well, that day is almost at hand: NEC has just announced details for the first USB 3.0 controller. The µPD720200 chip is backwards compatible with USB 1.1 and USB 2.0, with the company making samples available this June at $15 a pop (including Windows drivers). Look forward to seeing peripherals hit the streets soon after. Until then? Like the rest of us, you'll just have to keep on keepin' on.

[Via Everything USB]

[rumblejazz @ May 18th 2009 3:04PM]

faster.......a little faster..a little more............Too fast take it back.

[Soulsaber @ May 18th 2009 3:11PM]

That's what she said....?

[Brassen @ May 18th 2009 3:28PM]

Why support USB 1.1? I Haven't seen a device using it in a long time...

[Reaper man @ May 18th 2009 3:30PM]

I'm pretty sure quite a few input devices still use it.

[MioTheGreat @ May 18th 2009 3:54PM]

A keyboard generally doesn't need USB 2.0, which is more complex to implement.

[barc0de @ May 18th 2009 4:56PM]

If it's easily possible, then why *not*?

[Templarian @ May 18th 2009 3:12PM]

With USB 3.0 faster than FireWire (even faster than 3200), hopefully in the next few years we can finally see FireWire go away.

FireWire is great in all, but I would rather see everyone just stick to one connection type (plus firewire is only really used anymore in hard drives).

[MG76 @ May 18th 2009 3:49PM]

Actually, firewire is used in most high end professional audio and pro video devices.

[cb88 @ May 18th 2009 3:52PM]

along came eSata

[ryan @ May 18th 2009 4:29PM]

depends on where you go. FireWire is used as the standard in the audio/ visual / imagery industry...

[loosely_coupled @ May 19th 2009 2:06AM]

A few things..

1) It has not been proven yet whether or not USB3 will be faster. USB 2's maximum signaling rate is 480mbps, yet it never gets over 260mbps throughput in the real world.

2) Firewire is a far better DMA architecture that doesn't need USB's CPU intervention, carriers far more power than USB3, and can be daisy chained.

Unfortunately however, as has been seen with FW800 and USB2, the better technology doesn't always win. I'm sure USB3 will become the de-factor high-speed standard. For now, I will use eSATA or FW800. I REFUSE to use USB2 for external harddrives.. that is a freakin joke!

[crawdad689 @ May 18th 2009 3:16PM]

JUNE?!?!!??! DOES THIS MEAN THE NEW IPHONE WILL HAVE USB 3.0?!?!?!#!#?!#%


sorry guys, had to. =P

[Matt @ May 18th 2009 3:38PM]

Quick! To the presses! Get Engadget to write another iPhone related news post!

[Eric Foor @ May 18th 2009 3:26PM]

@crawdad

Palm Pre and the Zune phone will have USB too!

[slyd3z @ May 18th 2009 3:45PM]

Can you imagine what one of those USB humping dogs would do with that kind of throughput???

[jon @ May 18th 2009 6:07PM]

The rare, honest to god, lol.

Thank you.

[ChrisM @ May 18th 2009 3:49PM]

The question is: when will we realistically see this being offered built in to laptops? ..especially MacBooks.

[ScrapMaker @ May 18th 2009 4:34PM]

You must not understand how this works:
1) Entire industry adopts something.
2) Apple bashes it for being crappy.
3) 1-2 years later, they re-hash idea and become self-proclaimed gods.
4) CRAZY PROFIT!!

[benhc911 @ May 18th 2009 7:34PM]

I'm confused... what happened to "??????" ?

[xconan @ May 18th 2009 8:48PM]

but if Apple uses Intel everything chipsets it'll probably be out in the macbooks a year or the next apple WWDC... or if there are enough mac specific usb 3 devices out there to force apple's hand to create something rather than vice versa

[barc0de @ May 18th 2009 4:58PM]

I'm waiting on USB 3.0 for a number of purchases (laptop and HTPC), so any news about it being released soon is good news.

[locuus @ May 18th 2009 5:10PM]

My guess is - in laptops around Christmas. In Macs - next year.

[jon @ May 18th 2009 6:09PM]

So, when can we really expect to see these in retail mobos?

[loosely_coupled @ May 19th 2009 2:07AM]

"company making samples available this June at $15 a pop (including Windows drivers). Look forward to seeing peripherals hit the streets soon after."

Large volume commercial production of a chip does NOT start "soon after" sampling... I'd guess you won't see USB3 until Christmas at the earliest.

[sam @ May 19th 2009 7:02AM]

$15 a pop - OUCH! thats expensive for a usb controller, anyone know how much usb2 controllers are? Cant see gigabyte paying $15 for usb3 on each of their motherboards, they would only be able to put it on their highend boards.