USB 3.0 May Arrive on PCs by Q4 2009
Based on NEC Electronics and a recent convention, it's quite possible that PC's featuring USB 3.0 will hit the market by the end of the year.
The July edition of Nikkei Electronics Asia is reporting that PCs featuring USB 3.0 may ship from Taiwanese manufacturers by the end of the year. The verdict stems from the SuperSpeed USB Developers Conference recently held in Tokyo May 20-21, displaying numerous prototypes containing the upcoming technology that included PC hosts transferring data to connected external SSDs, and "mutual" interoperability between components from different vendors. NEA's Tadashi Nezu said it was clear that the industry is quickly pushing forward with compliant integrated circuits and more, and that the technology has actually matured since its earlier showings.
According to the article, one of the major factors accelerating the USB 3.0 commercialization is the shipment of the world's first USB 3.0 host controller. Manufactured by NEC Electronics Corp of Japan, the company originally introduced the device last month by providing a working sample, however the company believes--or rather predicts--that mass production will begin by September, consisting of a million units a month. This alone suggests that PCs containing USB 3.0 integrated circuits will begin to ship before the end of the year. NEC estimates that by 2011, 140 million units containing USB 3.0 will have shipped; 340 million by 2012.
'Industry observers predict the move will provide major impetus for the development of device controllers for peripherals such as external hard disk drives (HDD),' Nezu said.
Outside the promised 5 Gbps transfer speeds, Nezu also pointed out one of the biggest benefits stemming from USB 3.0: high-definition video streaming via isochronous transfer (data transmitted without interruption). An unspecified source--a measurement equipment engineer--said that the new technology should be able to handle 1080i HD video streams, 'maybe more.' However, the initial applications utilizing the new technology are expected to include external hard disk drives.
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Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
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mcnuggetofdeath Will it finally have decent sustained transfer rates? And how well will it match up against Firewire and E-Sata?Reply -
Hupiscratch Wait for more a couple of years, and maybe you´ll see true 3-way sli, pci-e 3.0, and other cool stuff! Lucky my actual pc can still handle it!Reply -
SDSUMarcus01 It'll undoubtedly have bugs when it comes out, so don't worry sad panda. I literally will be building my new pc tomorrow... but I knew about usb 3.0 and the like coming out soon. But I also realized I probably wouldn't be using any usb 3.0 devices any time soon... and by the time I do, I'll be ready to upgrade anyway.Reply -
apache_lives wonder if one day USB will be sufficent to run external video cards like DECENT ones...Reply -
Most of the MB will be available with USB3.0 very soon(I heard within 3~4month). I heard there are not much bugs for USB3.0 but I heard it will be updated for speed.Reply