We've already got the controller specs, now we just need the full-on protocol specs. Speaking at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference in Los Angeles, USB-IF president Jeff Ravencraft reportedly stated that he expects the "final specifications to be made public on November 17," and given that said day will mark the opening of the SuperSpeed USB Developers Conference in San Jose, we'd say it all jibes pretty well. Now, how many months will we have to wait before manufacturers can actually get the hasty new ports into machines?

Just last week, Intel gave AMD, NVIDIA and a whole host of friends what they had been clamoring for: 90% complete USB 3.0 controller specifications. Now, the cool cats over at MaximumPC have churned out an encyclopedic writeup that details USB SuperSpeed remarkably well. The highlights include assurance that USB 3.0 will be backwards-compatible with USB 2.0 and that it'll provide transfer rates up to ten times more than USB 2.0's 480Mbps limit (that's 4.8Gbps). Furthermore, we're told that uploads and downloads are kept on separate lanes, the cables are thicker, it will charge more devices more quickly, and it will be much more mindful of energy waste. Go on and get yourself completely schooled in the read link below.

Whittling down the amount of remotes in one's living room has long since been a challenge for the amateur home theater builder, and while there are some decent universal solutions on the market, the RF4CE Consortium is hoping to make things painfully simple. The group has been formed in order to "drive the adoption of an open radio frequency (RF) entertainment control specification based on IEEE 802.15.4." If you'll recall, this isn't the first time we've heard that standard called, as it's also used in MaxStream's XBee Xtender. Notably, Freescale is hoping to incorporate its Synkro technology into the specification, and in an ideal world, we'd see said protocol filter into DVD players, AV receivers, set-top-boxes and all manners of components. Let the IR-to-RF transition begin, we say.

Read - Sony's RF4CE Consortium release
Read - Freescale's RF4CE Consortium release

Just over eight months after the USB Implementers Forum completed the micro-USB specification, the Open Mobile Terminal Platform (OMTP) has recommended that the protocol be accepted as a universal standard for charging and syncing mobile devices. Reportedly, the "OMTP's paper recommends that the micro-USB standard" be adopted across the mobile industry in order to "streamline the whole value chain and provide end users with a larger choice of the most popular peripherals." Still, we're not told when handset manufacturers will start offering up the new port en masse, but at least we're makin' progress, eh?

While you may be a tad more interested in concepts such as wireless USB or micro-USB implementations, the USB Implementers Forum is kicking out yet another (low key) improvement to the universal serial bus. The crew has now announced the availability of the Battery Charging Revision 1.0 specification, which defines "a standard way for portable devices to draw current from wall chargers or PCs," and furthermore, "allows PCs and hubs to provide increased levels of current in order to shorten the charging time of connected devices." Of course, the task force made sure safety concerns were adequately addressed, as the protocol also defines a mechanism for connected peripherals to detect what type of power source it's mated with and draw an appropriate amount of energy from said host. No word on when nor how the new spec plans on hitting the market, but there's plenty of emergency powering alternatives to snap up in the meantime.

[Via TGDaily]

Squarely falling into the "you've got to be kidding" category, the Advanced Television Systems Committee has just announced that it will be developing its very own standard to "enable broadcasters to deliver television content and data to mobile and handheld devices via their DTV broadcast signal." In case you weren't aware, the world is quickly becoming over-saturated with hordes of other mobile television protocols, and just like the other guys, the forthcoming ATSC-M/H standard will be backwards compatible, which will allow "operation of existing ATSC services in the same RF channel without an adverse impact on existing receiving equipment." Among the services it hopes to channel are ad-supported (free to the user) television broadcasts, elusive "real-time, interactive services," subscription-based TV, downloadable content for on-demand playback, and there's even the potential for "real-time navigation" niceties in the future. Still, we're sure the standard will find a way to operate just fine, but unless a bidding war breaks out and the cost for mobile TV plummets due to all this competition, we're not really sure all these like-minded options are entirely necessary.

[Via MocoNews]

Although vanilla desktop PCs have (generally) been the same size and shape for years, the small form factor world has never really settled down, and while various other protocols have been thrown out there, no one has actually stepped up the task of standardized an SFF chassis until now. AMD has just announced the DTX "open standard," which the firm hopes will "enable broad adoption" of the SFF PC in order to deliver "innovative solutions to market that are smaller, quieter, desktop-friendly," and less taxing on the ecosystem. Reportedly, the DTX standard "will be designed to embrace energy-efficient processors and allow an optimally designed small form factor system to consume less power and generate less noise." Additionally, an open standard that's widely embraced will make the lives of OEMs much easier, and will hopefully give us folks looking for those wee PCs a bit more choice when it comes to picking one up. Notably, it seems that Asus has latched on already, boasting that it will start busting out DTX-compliant motherboards here shortly, likely to be bundled in some fashion with an AMD chip. If all goes as planned, this open standard should actually decrease manufacturing costs across the board over time, and AMD stated that a "review copy of the DTX specifications" should be made available sometime this quarter.

[Via Inquirer]

Just when you think another protocol change couldn't possibly surface and force you to purchase more adapters in order to operate your gadgets, it does. Sure enough, the USB Implementers Forum has recently announced that we loyal consumers will all be shelling out a few extra bucks as new mobile handsets, PDAs, and digital cameras adopt a new, smaller "micro-USB" adapter for syncing / charging. As the RAZRs of the world get thinner and thinner, so too must the port with which we charge it. While there's no apparent size specification just yet, all we know is that it'll be smaller than the current implementation, and inevitably require additional purchases in order to use. Additionally, the USB-IF stated the new standard would support USB On-The-Go, and will feature a "stainless steel shell" to reportedly yield "more than 10,000 insertion cycles" before your charging port is rendered completely inutile. No word on when to expect the ultra-diminutive port to start showing up on handsets, but look for it on the first mobile barely thicker than a credit card.

[Via Mobileburn]

As we edge ever closer (right?) to finally seeing a finalized 802.11n protocol, companies are shoving (sometimes in secret) draft-spec 802.11n kit into their products to take advantage of the here and now. Taking yet another baby step towards the goal, Qualcomm is releasing a fourth-generation chipset, dubbed the AGN400, to take advantage of Draft 2.0 of the IEEE 802.11n standard. The chipset itself was crafted by Airgo, who just so happened to be acquired by dear Qualcomm in one fell swoop, and also features Airgo's True MIMO Gen-N technology. Although Airgo has had its quibbles with backwards compatibility in the past, this device will supposedly play nice with all previous 802.11s, including the earlier draft of 802.11n and the typical trio of 802.11a/b/g. Reportedly ready to fit a "full array" of interface buses for OEM products, this Draft 2.0-compliant chipset purportedly provides "significantly better performance, a greater feature set, and enhanced interoperability" over the previous rendition. While pricing details weren't discussed, it should be ready for the world to see by CES, while True MIMO Gen-N products should be available by "the first quarter of 2007."

[Via PhoneMag]

We're confident these off kilter batteries have been keeping the IEEE quite busy in recent months, but they've apparently made time to agree upon the next major Ethernet standard, and have raised the bar way above the rumored "40Gbps" level by dropping the hammer on 100G. If you're hoping to pick up some newfangled NIC and take advantage of these crazy new speeds anytime soon, fuhgetaboutit. The IEEE's High Speed Study Group (HSSG) has quite a bit of work to go, including the actual assembly of a new task force, which will "work to standardize 100G Ethernet over distances as far as six miles over single-mode fiber optic cabling and 328 feet over multimode fiber." John D'Ambrosia, chair of the IEEE HSSG, has admitted that the need for quicker (and larger) pipes is imminent, especially considering the growing trend in downloadable media and Web 2.0 applications, but anticipates the forming of 100G to "not be too great a challenge." While we're most definitely writing anything these folks say in regard to promptness off, we're admittedly glad the gurus behind the scenes feel this next step up should happen rather smoothly, but the IEEE still doesn't think a "finalized standard" will go live "until 2009 or 2010."

[Via Shashdot]

Yeah, we're trying to hold back the snickering too. It seems the IEEE has chosen now as the time to start looking over those (previously innocent) battery protocols, and the timing couldn't be any more convenient. Rather than buckling down and getting a finalized 802.11n standard out the door, the task force is being silently forced to take a good, hard look at battery criteria. Currently focused on IEEE P1825 -- the designation for lithium-ion and lithium-ion polymer batteries used in digital cameras and camcorders -- the crew is hoping to set more uniform regulations for the "design, production, and evaluation" of said cells. The update is supposedly aimed at revising "design analysis, testing and qualification checks" to ensure those QA reports filter out any, um, potentially explosive misfits, and while the project is scheduled to be completed "within 18 months," we know how quickly these folks let their deadlines slip. But the force isn't letting those increasingly-concerned computer manufactures get too much of a head start, as the IEEE 1625 is also slated for a (very necessary) revamp -- which makes perfect sense considering its label: "laptop battery standard."

We hope your 802.11a/b/g setup is doing alright, because it looks like the finalized specifications for the next leap forward in WiFi has taken yet another step back. While we've all been waiting (and waiting) for some good news to surface about the progression of 802.11n, it appears that bad news just follows the next-generation WiFi standard around like a shadow. Despite the fact that Draft 1.0 has already been implemented in a plethora of products, including Dell's own 802.11n card for notebooks, reports are pointing to January 2007 before we even see a vote on the second draft of the specification. This issue is getting critical as vendors have jumped all over preliminary specs in order to grab sales by touting "802.11n compliancy," but a mishmash of implementations that don't always play nice together, as well as the questionable ability of Draft 1.0 products to be upgraded to Draft 2.0 (not to mention the final 802.11n draft) with a simple firmware update, is paving a trail of incompatibility and confusion. Ideally, the IEEE captains who are steering this ship can get things on track for an early '07 approval, but even if this does go down, we supposedly won't see final (as in, the really-real-final) specifications until sometime in 2008. While achieving speeds of near 600Mbps sounds mighty tempting, you'd probably be better off avoiding any device that promises to deliver such performance until this decision-making bottleneck clears up -- unless, of course, you just like playing the odds.

[Via Ars Technica]