Linux gets first driver for USB 3.0

The NEC USB 3.0 controller is due to hit the streets this month, and already Sarah Sharp (the, um, "Geekess") has been able to crank out a Linux driver for the device. Sharp states that she is "working with Keve Gabbert (the OSV person in my group at Intel) to make sure that Linux distributions like Ubuntu and Red Hat" pick up the driver, meaning that Linux users will likely be the first to have their Super Speed dreams become a reality. Are you a hardware manufacturer with some hot USB 3.0 controller prototype that wants to out this guy through its paces? Hit that read link to get started.

[Via Ozel Web Tasarim]

[NickNick @ Jun 11th 2009 9:58AM]

Linux lol

[General_Trelane, (retired) @ Jun 11th 2009 10:10AM]

lol xuniL

[Demios @ Jun 11th 2009 1:51PM]

Right cause Linux is useless. I'm not sure why peple resort to trolling in comments.

[Ghen @ Jun 11th 2009 2:53PM]

its human nature to mock that which you don't understand. Its a defensive mechanism.

[otdrummer @ Jun 11th 2009 3:57PM]

like a turd . . or an Apple fanboy

[No @ Jun 12th 2009 12:08AM]

What are you doing? Stop reading this shit. Rank that NickNick fucker down. Go on, scroll back to the top and press that minus button, NOW!

[shaunisadirty @ Jun 11th 2009 9:58AM]

When they were creating the USB 3.0 standard did they include only being able to use it for real devices that can benefit from the increased speed? That the plethora of crappy USB gimicky devices will not be allowed to run on USB 3.0? Because that would be nice.

[General_Trelane, (retired) @ Jun 11th 2009 10:12AM]

Crappy devices not allowed on USB 3.0?

Darn I guess Apple devices are out!

Zing!

[imnotageek @ Jun 11th 2009 10:16AM]

Since USB 3.0 cost is still high, you probably won't see the gimmicky devices for awhile.
They already have one "real" device: USB 3 to SATA. It was demoed with Fresco Logic's host:
http://www.digitimes.com/photogallery/ShowPhoto.asp?ID=3893&pg=1

[AlCabone @ Jun 11th 2009 10:47AM]

Are you serious. I can't wait for the USB 3.0 update of the USB Fish Tank:
http://www.woot.com/Blog/ViewEntry.aspx?Id=5895

[crawdad689 @ Jun 11th 2009 12:29PM]

USB 3.0 is fully backwards-compatible. Cheap USB devices ain't goin nowhere. I'm glad, too. Can never have enough USB gizmos around

[KyleW @ Jun 11th 2009 10:09AM]

Hurray for super-speed USB toasters, missile launchers, and george foreman grills!

[rcappo @ Jun 11th 2009 10:13AM]

There is a girl making low level device drivers for Linux? I thought you had to be a middle-aged guy working out of your parents basement to do that kind of work.

Pics or it doesn't exist. :)

*As a 67% Linux user, 33% Mac user at home, I welcome more drivers and being able to use newer devices.

[Dummy00001 @ Jun 11th 2009 11:36AM]

She is Intel's employee.

Some of my first programming teachers (x86 assembler, language theory and C++) were also women.

Do NOT underestimate feminine power.

[thatrotierkid @ Jun 11th 2009 11:52AM]

@Dummy

woosh!

[CraigJ @ Jun 11th 2009 12:07PM]

Well, she's no Ajay Bhatt

[BAWWW @ Jun 11th 2009 12:16PM]

@CraigJ

You're right, she's better.

[lpppppl @ Jun 11th 2009 10:15AM]

we'll wait for the first USB 3.0 hardware.

[Jorvay @ Jun 11th 2009 10:21AM]

To anyone who has ever complained about the lack of hardware drivers for Linux: This is extremely strong evidence that if hardware designers/manufactures provide open specs, Linux drivers are a piece of cake. Hell, they can get Linux drivers made by the community for free. Don't blame Linux when companies like Creative and Asus won't produce Linux drivers and deny people the info they need to produce their own drivers.

[elBravo @ Jun 11th 2009 10:37AM]

Second that!!

Now if only certain hardware vendors *cough* graphics *cough* wireless, would catch onto this...

[Pfanne @ Jun 11th 2009 10:50AM]

well
amd jumped on that bus and s3 too...
the only one left is nvidia, but they provide good closed source drivers...

[Rob @ Jun 11th 2009 11:27AM]

Ehh, the quality of NVidia's closed source drivers is sketchy at best. While I am grateful that the folks at NVidia even released a fairly good Linux driver (the sorts of things that Linux users learn not to take for granted), there are a LOT of bugs that could be fixed by the community in very short order if the drivers were open source. The graphics performance in Linux would quickly outpace graphics performance in that other O/S. If they would just release an open source driver, they would see better performance and compatibility, AND they would not need to dedicate the same amount of work to it on their end, all of the tweaking could be left to us.

As for the USB 3.0, I'm will get excited when we start getting flash devices that are capable of more that 20MB/s transfer speeds and can really make use of the extra transfer speeds.

[Dummy00001 @ Jun 11th 2009 11:39AM]

My problem is not that Linux has no drivers, but the overall poor integration.

e.g. Ubuntu properly recognizes my two sounds cards and USB loudspeakers, yet switching between them essentially doesn't work. Needless to mention that making Flash or movie player to produce sound on proper output is one big bag of pain.

[Xenoterranos @ Jun 11th 2009 12:30PM]

Wait, you have _2_ soundcards, but USB speakers? Please tell me you're some sort of audio engineer and you did this because you're actually really really smart and had a reason.

[Andir3.0 @ Jun 11th 2009 12:37PM]

I have 4 sound cards. Just because I can. I try to listen to all of them at one time. You can never have enough sound cards in a system! All those losers with just one sound card are missing out on the fun configuration options and curious stares when the sound doesn't work.

[Carlton @ Jun 11th 2009 1:35PM]

The major problem that few ever seem to realize is that companies like Creative and NVIDIA, et cetera, likely do not own 100% of the software in their drivers. Even parts of the hardware and firmware may be licensed.

So they can't just completely release the source code or specification. Still, one would think they could at least open up some of the code, lowering their cost of software development, while at the same time increasing their market potential and driver quality.

As a Linux user, it's frustrating, to say the least.

[Jorvay @ Jun 11th 2009 1:42PM]

Too true Carlton. I remember a few years ago when my dad (a fellow linux enthusiast) contacted a wireless card maker about this very issue. The reply came, from a VP no less, stating that a lot of the components in their hardware were made by third parties and that the company in question did not have the rights to release the info required for community driver development.
It's for this reason that I still give cudos to companies like nVidia, who haven't officially released their specs, but take the time to make nice closed-source drivers (that eventually get used to create better reverse-engineered community drivers).

[mbentley @ Jun 11th 2009 10:32AM]

very true rcappo. as we all know, there are no girls on the internet...

Sarah Sharp must be a pen name for a middle-aged guy working out of his parents basement

[GB @ Jun 11th 2009 10:36AM]

Or... Maybe YOU are Sarah Sharp with a fake nickname! HA, gotcha! ;)

[TheWalrusNP @ Jun 11th 2009 10:41AM]

http://opensourcebridge.org/users/51

I think that's Sarah Sharp! Doesn't look much like a middle-aged guy. Maybe girls DO exist on the internet.

[pablito @ Jun 11th 2009 10:42AM]

Eat your words :)
http://opensourcebridge.org/users/51

[pablito @ Jun 11th 2009 10:43AM]

Dammit TheWalrusNP, you stole my ten minutes of fame

[TheWalrusNP @ Jun 11th 2009 10:49AM]

Come on! A post about a girl had to be my first comment on this website!

[jose.cuetzpallin @ Jun 13th 2009 10:50AM]

Good news for linux users

[CreepinJesus @ Jun 11th 2009 10:38AM]

There are probably more USB3.0 devices out there than Linux users...

[pablito @ Jun 11th 2009 10:48AM]

...and all of them are launching rockets to mars, controlling tax fraud, monitoring the nuclear power plants that feed your PC while you wacht your blue screen of death, mesmerized.
And I'm not a linux fanboy, so it could have benn worse for you pal :)

[DarkLight @ Jun 11th 2009 10:55AM]

And even Linux fanboys fear the power of Linux fangirls

[mikeg @ Jun 11th 2009 11:21AM]

@pablito
do not confuse UNIX with Linux.
They are not the same.
Nor is UNIX the same as BSD, solaris, etc

They might be derivatives of UNIX, but they are not UNIX and are not running the world.

Most implementations of Linux are used either on web/mail servers or on embedded devices.

if its big iron, it's running UNIX, which is what you are describing.

And yes, I'm a linux user.

[pablito @ Jun 11th 2009 11:34AM]

mikeg, I know the difference but money talks and even big and advanced companies look for cheap and reliable alternatives to UNIX.
Here's an example :) http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS5714800202.html

We're not talking about ubuntu or fedora, of course :)

[slyd3z @ Jun 11th 2009 12:33PM]

@mikeg

Yeah, UNIX is not the same as Solaris (BSD is a derivative version of UNIX, but not registered with the Open Group, the license/trademark holder for UNIX) the same way Linux is not the same as Ubuntu, Red Hat, Mandriva, or SuSE.

Lay down the USB crackpipe, and back away from the keyboard...

http://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/register/

[aaron @ Jun 11th 2009 11:50AM]

I'm about to invest in a new PC for university (gaming), and I'm not sure if I should wait until this becomes the norm. I assume it'll be about 6 months before the costs aren't too high and USB 3.0 HDDs are available...

I obviously don't have enough cash to upgrade once I've bought my new system, so should I wait, or can we get PCI-x adapter for this (or will the transfer rate/bandwidth be too slow)?

It'll make a huge difference for me as I'm planning to buy an external 1tb (or so) HDD to take from home and uni.

Thanks!

[deanb @ Jun 11th 2009 12:34PM]

Its about 6 months till it comes out, so about a year or so till it's affordable-ish.
As for a 1TB drive just make sure that it's got E-Sata n your new PC has E-sata n you'll be running it as fast as an internal drive.

[chris @ Jun 11th 2009 12:35PM]

most new mobos these days have Esata which i supposed to be up to 3 Gbit/s, compared to usb3.0's 4.8 Gbit/s, its close enough, either way your probably not going to see a difference until transfering files to drives in which you would probably get a external drive with USB and eSATA

[aaron @ Jun 11th 2009 8:33PM]

Thanks guys. Appreciated :]

[darkmax @ Jun 11th 2009 12:14PM]

wait... of all the things that i've heard of USB 3.0 I thought it is a protocol or standard.... Does it mean that we have to change the usb sockets?

[Jorvay @ Jun 11th 2009 12:49PM]

The physical socket will be similar, and will accept older USB devices, just like USB1.1 stuff works on USB2 ports. Though I doubt that USB3 devices will work on USB2 or 1.1 ports.

[chris @ Jun 11th 2009 12:31PM]

lets hope for those "10 times faster" claims to be true, everytime i check the speed for a hard drive transfer or something similar on the supposed "480mbps" USB 2.0 devices it allways tends to be more in the 8-10mpbs range reality. when will they start giving realistic numbers of speed, even with firewire 400 it seemed a bit faster than USB's supposed 480, too bad almost no PC or device uses firewire or i would use it more

[slyd3z @ Jun 11th 2009 12:55PM]

I think what's misleading is that the speed ratings are typically the maximum burst rate rather than the average sustained transfer rate. Even though it would suck for marketing, I would much rather the sustained rates be advertised instead of the (seldom reached) maximums.

[mac404 @ Jun 11th 2009 7:16PM]

I think you're off by a factor of 8 at least (the whole bits to bytes thing), not to mention I have consistently gotten over 20MB/s (ie. 160mb/s) transfers over an external hard drive over gigabit ethernet (transfer to another computer through ethernet from my external USB hard drive).

[Michael Scrip @ Jun 11th 2009 6:47PM]

How did they write the driver for USB 3.0? How did they test it? Do they have some USB 3.0 devices already?