Over the past week or so, there has been a bit of press about PC motherboards with USB 3.0 hardware support built in. We mentioned it briefly back in May this year, but at last there's more useful information about and now some hardware is a reality. 

Here's the promotional video from USB-IF, the governing body for USB:

SuperSpeed USB from USB IF on Vimeo.

So - on to the details:

What is it?

In short, a revised USB interface standard that supports much higher transfer rates. Current USB 2.0 supports speeds up to 480 Mbps theoretically but in real world use it's unlikely to exceed 320 Mbps. USB 3.0 supports speeds up to 5 Gbps. Hence the marketing name of SuperSpeed USB. It's doubtful that the top speed of the specification would be achieved in real-world applications, but even going at half that, it's still around a ten-fold boost. 

It will have new cables and new connectors to accommodate both the increased speed and increased power available at the port, but does retain backward compatibility with USB 2.0. 

How does it go so much faster?

The main points that make it go faster is that instead of only five terminals in the connection, there are ten and that instead of polling it's now asynchronous and full duplex. Essentially, it's a dual bus design. There's a touch more to it than that, but it's very heavy reading.

OK - so it's faster, but what else does it do?

More power. The spec calls for up to 900 mA, up from the old standard of 500 mA. That means that more devices which have a bigger power-draw than can be presently used will be available. It also means the end of the old 'double header' cable hack to deliver more power to USB hard disk drives and similar high drain devices. Additionally, there's also the facility to add more power up to a total 1000 mA for extreme applications, hubs, etc. 

Better power management.  Up to 150 mA at standby, up from 100 mA and a more advanced operational to standby and back switching method. Certainly good news for mobile and portable users. There are some additional characteristics to this feature but explaining them is more for the serious technophile.

And the downside is?

Shorter cables and thicker cables. While the spec allows lengths up to around 5 metres, the conductor thickness has to be higher and the resistance lower. It means that if you want to go long, you'll need to pay attention to the quality of the cable. If the device can't signal the host that it is a SuperSpeed device, you're stuck at USB 2.0 speeds.

Will my old stuff work?

Yes. In most cases unless there is a severe design deficiency. The physical connector is the same size and shape. USB 2.0 items will still physically connect but the only pins engaged in the host interface will be the ones for USB 2.0. The new advanced power management scheme won't be in use, neither will the additional power availability.

Why do I want it?

The higher data transfer rates and higer power levels will allow a wider range of more advanced devices such as high-res webcams, other DV-cams, much faster external hard disks, external high-definition media players (Blu-Ray for example), multi-channel audio devices and more. 

By way of example, a USB 2.0 hard disk usually can't deliver more than 25 Mb / sec data transfer which is far below the drive's acutal sustained data transfer rate. 

It's certainly going to be a huge improvement for digital video cameras. Trying to send an hour of HD digital video via USB 2.0 is a shocking experience - so painfully slow. Firewire is better. USB 3.0 will be the best. 

USB 3.0 flash memory devices, the ubiquitous USB drives we all know and love, will also be heading in the direction of high speed. This will ultimately mean higher prices for those devices.

Another top advantage would be using USB 3.0 hubs for your USB 2.0 devices. With more total power available at the hub and a bigger data pipe it would mean that you could use all of your devices at somewhere close to their maximum speed rather than suffering speed and voltage division between all the devices on the hub. 

When can I have it?

As I mentioned at the beginning of the article, there are some products available now - motherboards, host bus adapter cards and some devices. However, the prices are exceedingly high for the host bus adapter cards and devices. 

The main factor that will delay its presence will be PC hardware manufacturers integrating the specification into motherboards, the availability of low cost host bus adapters (add-in cards for computers) and of course devices. Without devices with a compelling application it's pointless. 

Take into account that there isn't much out-of-the-box support for it from any operating system right now and you would be right in deciding that it's another product where waiting will be best course of action. Realistically mid-2010 would seem to be about right.

What are you doing about it?

We're keeping an eye on developments and as soon as there is enough demand and a good supply of reliable product which we can offer at a fair price, we'll be adding USB 3.0 to our product range.

If you are a hardcore tech or you would like to take a look at the detailed specification, then please visit www.usb.org for more information.