All About the New USB 3.0 Standard

We have come such a long way since the original USB standard that started out with version 1.0 for the general public in the late 1990's. This first commercial USB success was capable only to transfer 183k per second between devices. As of 2002, we were able to transfer between 45MB to 57MB per second over the next generation of USB, which has been current up to today. Most people are intimately familiar with the USB 2.0 standard, due to the fact that a great number of products and devices were released quickly and easily due to the improved speed and flexibility of 2.0. Those who upgraded from 1.0 to 2.0 were definitely glad to do so, seeing both the benefit of increased speed and reliability that came with it. From 2004 on out, most computer motherboards were already equipped with the 2.0 USB standard so that people did not have to purchase add-in cards. Most laptops also had version 2.0 as their standard built-in as well for the sake of convenience, and better sales to consumers.

But now? Welcome to the year 2010, which firmly marks the official and global release of the USB 3.0 standard! You'll now be able to enjoy over 10 times as much speed and transfer efficiency as before, with improved error correction and a blazingly fast connection to devices at 572 megabytes per second! This new standard takes advantage of true fiber optic connections too, so not only does it handle bi-directional data faster with more data per channel (and a few extra channels per cable), it handles the speed of transfer on all channels (even the normally slower connections requiring backwards-compatability) more efficiently, and gives you instant gratification through short-cable fiber-optic speeds whenever you attach a device.

Although the hardware is a little more complicated than before, general users won't be intimidated or even put off by it. Despite the issues with the earliest usb prototypes, the finished 3.0 interface is 100% backwards compatible and supports all 2.0, 1.1, and 1.0 devices even more reliably.

Microsoft, Intel, and other major companies have jointly (and a bit secretly) been working on the 3.0 standard since early 2004, but they had run into several obstacles and knew that they needed to overcome them before they could achieve true backwards compatability. This new standard has been ready since at least the middle of 2008, but there was a universal decision by vendors and marketing teams alike to hold out on the release of USB 3.0 devices until after Microsoft either completed a stable follow-up release to Windows XP, or there was enough majority approval by hardware vendors and marketplaces to pursue sales of 3.0 devices. Although Microsoft is still struggling with the issue of creating a stable operating platform to be the successor of XP, the latest standard for USB devices has been rolled out with full support in both Linux and Windows 7.

I was a bit dismayed at first to hear that XP might not have drivers for USB 3.0 cards and thus would leave XP users out of being able to take advantage of this new technology. But sure enough, there is at least one company in China who manufactures both PCI and PCI-express based cards with support for Windows 2000 and Windows XP. Talk about relief! You can rest assured that you won't be blackmailed by Microsoft into having to use Windows Vista or Windows 7 to be able to work with usb devices at ultra-high speeds. Even though general hardware markets are now bought and sold by Microsoft in general (giving literally no choice to the consumer other than to have Windows 7 pre-installed on all forms of new personal computer systems), you'll at least be able to add usb 3.0 capability to your exisiting system and keep it up to date with the latest usb technology. The bottom line is that for those with other operating systems, there is still hope (and drivers). There is full support for Mac OS X, and talk of support for other platforms such as QNX.

Most Linux systems (such as the Debian-based Ubuntu Linux) can use this already, and there are plans of future support for alternative free operating systems like FreeDOS and Haiku (the successor to BeOS). Although not yet confirmed, I would imagine that Google's mostly linux-based operating system Chromium will also have support for this if they don't already.

Another neat thing (something of importance to those who use their computer's usb with their cellphone) is that you will be able to charge devices faster and have more power at your disposal when you do. The power output of the 3.0 connections provide 100 miliamps up to 900 miliamps per port connection. This means that not only will your devices charge faster, but other devices which have been developed to make use of the usb port as a power source exclusively (like usb-based desktop fans and usb-based pc to tv converters) will be able to use a single port to power devices which often require two usb ports to correctly operate. This is great news for people who routinely use devices such as Cricket's cellular internet modems which generally require two usb ports for proper usage. On a netbook or a laptop with limited ports, that's an important detail that can make all the difference in the world of their computing, and in general will make life a lot easier. In some cases, it will mean being able to eliminate the use of a mini-hub or pcmcia extension card which hindered portability or flexibility of a mobile office.

I've probably given you the impression that this new implementation will be somewhat of a power-hog...but nothing could be further from the truth. Matter of fact, the team working on this spec decided to ditch the method of device-polling used on usb 1.0-2.0, and instead use an interrupt-based method which is far more efficient which doesn't waste power by being in an always-on state to maintain connectivity. So even if you do end up needing to draw more power from a 3.0 port for a device for a brief period of time, you will use a lot less power on average than if you leave a device idle and connected to a usb 2.0 port. Granted, the 2.0 ports don't automatically draw more than they need, but they are always drawing something for keep-alive. The new 3.0 ports draw little if they have to maintain that, and for most 3.0-compliant devices, they don't have to do that at all. Energy-star approved for sure.

In conclusion, this is a great step forward for universal devices in both business and general-purpose consumer computing. I know the wheels are turning for those who use usb devices on a daily basis and are thinking about how much faster and better things will work out for them with this. Until you have the chance to try it out yourself as I did, all I will say to you from here is that I think you'll be pretty happy with the results like I am!