Tell You What Technology Can Do

25GB in 70 seconds. That's the torrid transfer rate consumers can expect with devices based on the USB 3.0 specification, which debuted Monday.

As reported previously, the USB Promoter Group finalized the "SuperSpeed" USB 3.0 specification today and is doing a "comprehensive review" of the technology at a conference in San Jose, Calif.

Intel, Microsoft, Texas Instruments, and NEC are the leading players in the group.

Among the initial devices, external solid-state (flash) drives and hard drives are expected to be popular. "The first SuperSpeed USB devices will likely include data storage devices such as flash (solid-state drives), external hard drives, digital music players, and digitial cameras," the group said.

Products aren't coming until 2010, however. "It is anticipated that initial SuperSpeed USB discrete controllers will appear in the second half of 2009 and consumer products will appear in 2010," according to the group.

"The USB 3.0 Promoter Group is now accepting adopters of the USB 3.0 specification, which has been finalized at the 1.0 level," the group added.

As its name (SuperSpeed) implies, USB 3.0 is all about speed. About 10 times more speed, to be exact, than the 2.0 specification.

Here's data from a slide that Microsoft showed at WinHEC 2008 on November 6:

Transfer of a 25GB HD movie:

• USB 1.0: 9.3 hours
  
• USB 2.0: 13.9 minutes
  
• USB 3.0: 70 seconds
  

But the new specification is a long time in coming. USB 2.0 was launched almost eight years ago. At WinHEC, Microsoft expressed caution about USB 3.0 because finalization has taken so long. Because of delays, "we're challenged and we won't have support for USB 3.0 in Windows 7 at RTM (release to manufacturing)," Lars Giusti of Microsoft said earlier this month.

"If you look at the USB 3.0 industry timelines and checkpoints, it really has been a very long, difficult and challenging three-year effort," he added.

Currently, Microsoft is trying to figure out whether it should support USB 3.0 in Vista or just later operating systems.

Killing FireWire

USB 3.0 is likely to signal the death of FireWire/IEEE 1394, a competing interface standard also known as i.Link and Lynx. Today, the industry is bifurcated between IEEE 1394 and USB 2.0. Many devices support both, though a single standard would be optimal.

"If we are all aligned, we are saving money and development time for the industry," says Moorhead.

With Apple seemingly taking step away from FireWire, it seems like USB could gain the upper hand. Apple's newly introduced MacBook computers lack a FireWire port and instead has USB. MacBook Pro still sports FireWire 800.

That leaves Sony as one of the few remaining proponents of the standard.

"FireWire stably declining in most markets and USB 3.0 will continue that trend," says O'Rourke. "We could see USB emerge as the standardization of a high-speed interconnect."

Monday's first USB 3.0 developer conference will be a big step towards that, say experts. "It's for everyone in the USB value chain, from chipmakers to software makers to learn the new USB standard and get on it," says O'Rourke.

At a glance:USB 3.0
Faster: 10 times faster than USB 2.0 and six times faster than FireWire 800
Greater power efficiency: New interrupt driven protocol optimizes power management.
Better Power Output: Power output bump to 900 milliamps from 100 milliamps allows more devices to be charged faster via USB.
Backward Compatible: New connectors and cables will work with work with devices running the older USB 2.0