Ten times fasted than USB 2.0
Since its introduction in 1996, USB has become the most commonly used interface in computing and in 2004, an estimated one billion USB devices were available in the world.
Having launched with a data rate of just 1.5 Mbit/s over ten years ago, the USB platform underwent its first major upgrade in April 2000 in the form of USB 2.0. Offering a significant boost in speed, USB 2.0 provided data rates of up to 480 Mbit/s which has been deemed suitable ever since.
Now however, with the continued growth of HD material and increasingly large files, faster speeds are required and the head of the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), Jeffery Ravencraft, has stated that "The growing use of video and audio devices, with their bigger files sizes, was one of the reasons behind the development of faster transfer rates".
USB 3.0 utilises a a parallel optical cable and is designed to be backwards compatible with USB 2.0 and USB 1.1 whilst also being more energy-efficient than its predecessor. Having been demonstrated for the first time at the Intel Developer Forum a few months ago, the official specifications of USB 3.0 are expected to be announced early next year with the first products appearing in late 2009.
Source: The Sydney Morning Herald
