First USB 3.0 product gets certified, floodgates get closer to breaking
By Darren Murph 
posted September 21st 2009 9:00AM
posted September 21st 2009 9:00AM
He also noted that a smattering of companies would be showcasing USB 3.0 gear at upcoming trade shows, with a Buffalo external hard drive, an ExpressCard-to-USB 3.0 adapter and even a full-on laptop with a functioning USB 3.0 port making a stop at IDF later this week. Aside from the aforesaid ExpressCard adapter -- which will let existing lappies enjoy the spoils of SuperSpeed USB -- he also noted that a PCI card would be available for desktop users looking to add a few sockets to their rig. We were also informed that USB 3.0 receptor ports will play nice with USB 2.0 cables and gadgets, albeit at USB 2.0 speed; additionally, USB 3.0 wares will be able to connect via older USB 2.0 sockets, though again at a slower rate. We've got to say, the dual-backwards compatibility is pretty sweet.
We also asked him about cabling and the general market transition to USB 3.0, and he did note that USB 3.0 cables will be physically different inside. In other words, a USB 2.0 cable cannot carry data at USB 3.0 speeds, end of story. To enjoy USB 3.0, you'll need a USB 3.0 receptor port, a USB 3.0 cable and a USB 3.0 product; if you swap any of those pieces with USB 2.0, everything slows to USB 2.0 rates. Jeff also noted that the USB-IF would be coordinating the release of end products and cables, and he even said that older USB protocols may actually never completely fade from the market. After all, wireless keyboards would never need USB 3.0 speeds unless some sort of display were integrated, and particularly in cheaper products, using an older USB chipset could help keep costs down and MSRPs lower. So yeah, USB 3.0 is officially here, but the public can't play with any USB 3.0 gear just yet. But if our hunches are correct, we'd bet on at least one or two big players pushing out SuperSpeed-packin' wares before the year ends.
usb 3.0wn
sweet ..
but right now i'm thinking how much will it cost me to get a miniPCIexpress-to-usb3 support, and then how much for my lappy to have an expressCard-to-usb3 support :|
sucks to be on 'old' hardware but thats have technology works.
still gg!
I hope not! USB needs the competition or else development will slow down and licensing prices will go up! Competition is needed for a reason!
Only if it has a "Turbo" button.
I hope no one calls it "three dot oh"
Hopefully this become so prominent that they just drop firewire completely. Can't wait to see support show up in other devices shortly. Mostly happy about how it handles power now.
Firewire is my friend, and you hurt my friend's feelings.
You don't have to leave firewire just yet, I'm just saying you probably want to stop seeing firewire or people will start to suspect things, if they don't already.
@Templarian:
I'll drop FireWire when USB stops being dependent on the CPU.
@michas_pi, I never got the reason why people care about the CPU dependency. CPU's are constantly getting smaller and more powerful. Using them to transfer data is nothing for them and allows manufactures to make the devices smaller.
Really that point is mute, it made sense years ago, but the idea of offloading it to another chip doesn't make sense.
If they could do Target Firewire on USB then I would be chuffed, but until then FW still has a place in my heart.
@Templarian
/Joey Tribbiani
"...this is all a moo point."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLwYpSCrlHU
I believe the word you were looking for is "moot", not "mute". Just saying. :-)
But I'd have to agree with tekdroid about CPU usage. What if you're working with a file on an external drive that requires extensive use of the CPU (video conversion or manipulation, for example). Why steal CPU cycles away just for get the data from one point to another if you don't have to?
@Aaron P., Yea realized the typo afterward, figured everyone would overlook it. Oh Monday mornings in the office. :P
On topic though due to the much higher bandwidth of USB 3.0 and having multiple cores in desktops where one would even consider doing a task like this the loss on the CPU would be pretty insignificant and minor during the transfer duration. In that situation most would just connect their drive with a sata cable.
I'm mostly saying it's not worth it in the long run.
I thought the whole point of offloading the FW transactions onto a separate processor was that you could guarantee a much more consistent latency, especially important for live Video/Audio capture w/o dropping frames. I could be totally wrong though.
Point Grey is about to ship a nice little c-mount USB web cam... uncompressed 1080p! SWEET!
I would have REALLY liked to see USB 3 make its debut, in laptops, with the Core i7 Mobile systems that will be showing up next month, but we all know there is a snowballs chance in heck of that happening. Oh well.
You'll have to wait around for a new ICH to come around for that. Laptop makers could add USB 3.0 support via an add-on controller though.
hell*
If you are going to use that saying please don't break it by not saying hell, thanks.
Windows 7 = check
Intel i-7 = check
USB 3.0 = check
Equals Buy New PC
I'll get USB 3.0 when it's integrated into a sub $100 mainboard.
Until then...
Windows 7: √
USB 3.0: √
Intel Core i9: X
DX11 Card: X
So not yet for me =).
Don't forget about SATA 6.0 Gbps!!
lol Windows? People still use that?
pfft lol people still use Windows?
rofl wodenhelm is still saying the same things over and over again?
I'm holding out for LudicrousSpeed USB.
My brains are going into my feet!
1. First commercial floppy drive: IBM's 8 inch floppy in 1971.
2. First commercial hard drive: IBM's 350 Model 1 in 1956.
3. First commercial graphical interface: IBM's AN/FSQ-7 in 1958.
etc...
Notice a pattern there? No fruit; just something big and blue.
Annoying comment system. My reply was to the next comment down...
I'm betting Apple will be the first on the market to get USB 3.0 on their machines.
Apple's computers had the first:
• Floppy drives
• Hard Drives
• Graphical Interfaces
• CD-ROM Drives
• Built-in Wifi
• USB with the iMac
Rumors of iMac / Macbook updates soon as well...
I can't verify all of that, but I can verify that they weren't first with USB, but they did push it heavily with the iMac.
PCs had USB ports before iMac did, but they didn't rely on them as exclusively as the iMac did and more than likely they didn't have an as 'iconic' computer to push this fact as Apple did, giving the impression they were first when they weren't.
That's a good point, by now it might even look bad if they didn't have it first.
I'm betting Apple will not be the first on the market to get USB 3.0 on their machines mainly because you list is one large FAIL !
• Floppy drives = First on an IBM PC, they were invented by IBM after all.
• Hard Drives = First on an IBM 305 RAMAC Computer in 1956 ! long before Apple were even founded
• Graphical Interfaces = First on the Xerox 8010 Star Information System in 1981 (the Apple Lisa was 2nd)
• CD-ROM Drives = First launched in 1985, when the first Macintosh still had a floppy
• Built-in Wifi = Complete FUD Wifi has been around since 1991 and no Apple computer came with it then
• USB with the iMac = iMac launched in 1998 USB launced in 1996 and was created by Compaq, Digital, IBM, Intel, Northern Telecom, and Microsoft, it was licensed to Apple 2 years later.
You miss the point that people with PCs can just buy a USB 3 card and don't need to wait for their messiah to build it into a new machine.
There is already mobos with usb3 so, its a no for apple. Sorry fans.
Major4Play:
The IBM PC was not first with a floppy drive. Floppy drives were available on home computers (what PCs were called before they were called personal computers) back in the 70s when IBM was still completely ignoring the home computer market. You could get on a TRS-80, Apple II and Commodore PET long before IBM even made a PC in the 80s. And they were available on home computers even before that, when home computers really came in parts (the TRS-80 model I followed this model slightly). For examples, look up S-100 bus computers.
Hard drives were also available on home computers long before the IBM PC even came out. You're right about the IBM Winchester 30-30 being the first hard drive anywhere though, although magnetic drums existed long before that and they are very similar.
Graphical interfaces preceed the Star and the Lisa. They were simply attempts to make entire systems that used graphical UIs for everything. There were system which used graphical interfaces for CAD data entry quite a bit before the Lisa. Look up the Tektronix 4014, and it wasn't first either, just the first big boom. In terms of PC GUIs, I guess the Lisa was first, but if you disregard it (it was very expensive and failed in the marketplace), there were several GUI software packages for PCs, Apple ][s, Ataris and the Amiga before the Mac came along with the 3rd real attempt at whole-systems GUIs for PCs.
Apple was first with the CD-ROM drive on a PC. The Apple CD Drive (a real POS) was the first model and Apple also made the first PCs with built-in CD drives too. I dunno who was first with a CD-ROM drive anywhere, but I know Digital and SUN beat Apple to it. Compaq was first with a DVD-ROM drive on a PC, IIRC.
Apple was first with built-in WiFi as far as I know. WiFi was specified before that and external adapters existed, but Apple was first to build it in. WiFi has not been around since 1991, 802.11 didn't even come around until 1997 and it was a failure. There were spread-spectrum systems in 1991, I used a really lousy one from Motorola back then. The device was the size of an external 5.25" hard drive, and thus was not built into anything.
USB definitely existed before the iMac. It was even built-in to some PC motherboards before that. But no one used those ports, many didn't even install the drivers. Windows didn't work right with USB mice and keyboards either at that time. But by all measures, the iMac was the first machine that really took USB to heart. This is why if you go back and look at the USB products from the day, they were all iMac candy-colored, because iMac users were using USB and buying products and PC people weren't really doing so since there was very little that was supported.
Anyone got the bandwidth speeds?
Does this mean that the tech we're seeing for running multiple monitors across USB will actually work at a decent rate?
I run 4 monitors off a desktop at the moment and I would love to replace that with a decent spec'd laptop but I'd still want the 4 monitors when I'm back at home.
Sorry - I really must do some research before firing off ...
In a nutshell, USB 3.0 promises the following:
* Higher transfer rates - up to 4.8 Gbps
* Increased maximum bus power and increased device current draw to better accommodate power-hungry devices
* New power management features
* Full-duplex data transfers and support for new transfer types
* New connectors and cables for higher speed data transfer...although they are backwards compatible with USB 2.0 devices and computers.
3.2 Gbit/s (after overhead), so You could run a 1080 TV through USB. Not sure if anyone will do it with HDMI being in all new laptops.
Just another way to extract even more money from our pockets.
I can see now that things like USB 3 hard drives will carry a $50 premium when the ACTUAL cost is much lower *sigh*
Thankfully i have a Firewire 800 external!
Haha, yeah firewire 800 is given away for free, they don't add any cost to devices with firewire as we all know, especially the 800 version, it's not like they license the hell out of it right? Or?
The royalty which Apple and other patent holders initially demanded from users of FireWire (US$0.25 per end-user system) has since been dropped to 0, royalty-free.
( from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_1394_interface )
And might I mention that the CPU-controlled (Rather softmodem-y) nature of USB means you're lucky to get 50% of the theoretical maximum transfer rate, where FireWire 800 (IEEE 1394b-2002), being that all the protocol is handled by a dedicated hardware chip, gets you the full 800Mbps - and FireWire S1600 and S3200 offer _ACTUAL RATES_ of 1.6 and 3.2 Gbit using the same connector FW800 uses - a simple change in controller chip to a chip that is already out offers full S1600 and S3200 support.
You can even get FireWire 800 over an ethernet cable (Cat5e cable + 8p8c connectors) using FireWire S800T (IEEE 1394c-2006) - and the same controller chip can communicate with both FireWire and Gigabit Ethernet devices on the same connector using link auto-negotiation.
Also, the tree architecture of FireWire is vastly superior to the host-hub-client architecture of USB, as any node can talk to any other node without worrying about host mode, client mode etc. And they can be daisy-chained up to a maximum of 63 peripherals + the primary node (host computer or device acting as same).
Also, contrary to popular windows-fanboy belief, Apple did invent firewire - from the same wiki article:
FireWire is Apple's name for the IEEE 1394 High Speed Serial Bus. It was initiated by Apple (in 1986) and developed by the IEEE P1394 Working Group, largely driven by contributions from Apple, although major contributions were also made by engineers from Texas Instruments, Sony, Digital Equipment Corporation, IBM, and INMOS/SGS Thomson (now STMicroelectronics).
Apple didn't entirely create it but they did come up with the initial design.
You do realize that you DON'T have to buy it don't you? They are no taking any more money from you then you are willing to give them for updated tech.
This USB device can perform faster if you connect it to a Hi-Speed USB 3.0 port.
This USB device can perform faster if you connect it to a 'Super-Speed' USB 3.0 port.
This device won't perform any faster on a Super-Speed USB 3.0 port because your a dumbass and put a 6gb ATA66 drive into a enclosure from your 1998 Compaq.
*Windows then precedes by playing a /golfclap clip from the film 'Men at Work'*
Huh, that compatibility backwards/forwards/looping around and around and around is pretty sweet.
To whoever said apple is going to be the first with USB 3.0 ....my asus CG series PC with 9gb of DDR3 ram a terabyte HD and GTX 260 graphics, all stock, for 1100 bucks. Comes with 2 USB 3.0 ports :)
....PC's ftw
So i have to buy a new case with 3.0 front ports?
ports will be the same, you just have to change the the internal cables and the motherboard :)
external cables of course
"This Device could preform faster with USB3.0"