USB 3.0: 4.8 gbit/s

[Dr Mordrid]

Link....

USB 3.0 on the horizon

September 23, 2007 Details of the proposed next generation of high-speed USB (Universal Serial Bus) connectors have been unveiled. The planned USB 3.0 system will target a transfer speed of 4.8 gigabits per second, ten times that of USB 2.0 models. Intel, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Texas Instruments, NEC and NXP Semiconductors have formed the USB 3.0 Promoter Group to make the high-speed connection a reality, with final USB 3.0 specification scheduled to be released in the first half of 2008 and backward-compatible products hitting shelves as early as 2009.

The tenfold increase in transfer power is the result of incorporating a second channel into the USB design. In addition to the standard copper channel, which ensures its back-compatibility with USB 2.0 systems, the USB 3.0 will contain fiber optic technology, which enables far greater transfer efficiency. USB 3.0 will also enjoy greater levels of energy efficiency than its predecessor and the technology is likely to be initially available in discrete silicon products.

"USB 3.0 is the next logical step for the PC's most popular wired connectivity," said Jeff Ravencraft, technology strategist with Intel and president of the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF). "The digital era requires high-speed performance and reliable connectivity to move the enormous amounts of digital content now present in everyday life. USB 3.0 will meet this challenge while maintaining the ease-of-use experience that users have come to love and expect from any USB technology."
>
>

[Jammrock]

Fiber, great, let's stick something that can't be bent in a consumer cable that will get unplugged, stored and used a lot. Great idea.

[Tjalfe]

with short distances, they should be fine with cheap multimode plastic fibers, which may handle people abuse better. Toslink cables have worked OK for consumers so far, to the best of my knowledge.
Besides that, are they targetting the SATA market with this speed?.. my printer/scanner/memory stick/mouse would need nowhere near these speeds.

[VJ]

Most people seem to use USB for storage devices (harddrives, cd/dvd drives, usb-sticks and cameras) or other devices that might benefit from faster speeds (printers, scanners, sound devices, displays (who'd have quessed?), ...).

Back in the days, I thought we were going to see USB for low-speed devices (mice, keyboards, ...) and firewire for highspeed devices. Seeing this evolution, they'll probabely go for USB all the way (which isn't necessarily a bad thing). I do wonder how this will evolve further on (e.g. with the displays).


Jörg

[Jammrock]

TosLink works because you plug it in once and then forget about it. The cable lays hidden in a mess/mass of cables behind your stereo and is never touched again...for the most part. A USB cable however will typically not share the same fate. That and even plastic fiber can only bend so far. Plus, it adds one more thing that can go wrong in a cable and connection.

Anyway, as for eSATA, it currently runs at 3.0 Gb/s, but that's because it is designed to run on a PCIe X1 lane. Once PCIe 2.0 comes out and the lane speed goes up to 5 Gb/s I am sure eSATA will follow in speed increase. Not that any current hard drive could saturate that much bandwidth, and most RAID configs couldn't either, but when SDDs get fast and cheap, read: PRAM, then it might. And unless the USB consortium does something about CPU usage with USB, there's no way I want to get anywhere near 4.8 GB/s on a USB device.

[High_Jumbllama]

Most people seem to use USB for storage devices (harddrives, cd/dvd drives, usb-sticks and cameras) or other devices that might benefit from faster speeds (printers, scanners, sound devices, displays (who'd have quessed?), ...).

Back in the days, I thought we were going to see USB for low-speed devices (mice, keyboards, ...) and firewire for highspeed devices. Seeing this evolution, they'll probabely go for USB all the way (which isn't necessarily a bad thing). I do wonder how this will evolve further on (e.g. with the displays).


Jörg

Well. It's everywhere. So there will be attempts not matter how successful or not. I use firewire for my external drive with a nice PCI Express card. It seems like a waste.

[Kooldino]

Fiber, great, let's stick something that can't be bent in a consumer cable that will get unplugged, stored and used a lot. Great idea.

It can be bent, just not at crazy angles. I'm sure they'll shield it appropriately to prevent over bending.