•
USB 3.0/USB 3.1 Gen 1 RAIDs
•
Optical Media Drives
•
Multimedia Devices
•
Networking
•
USB 3.0/USB 3.1 Gen 1 Adapter Cards & Hubs
Compatibility
The good news is that USB 3.0/USB 3.1 Gen 1 has been carefully planned from the start to peacefully co-exist with USB 2.0. First of all,
while USB 3.0/USB 3.1 Gen 1 specifies new physical connections and thus new cables to take advantage of the higher speed capability of
the new protocol, the connector itself remains the same rectangular shape with the four USB 2.0 contacts in the exact same location as
before. Five new connections to carry receive and transmitted data independently are present on USB 3.0/USB 3.1 Gen 1 cables and only
come into contact when connected to a proper SuperSpeed USB connection.
Windows 8/10 will be bringing native support for USB 3.1 Gen 1 controllers. This is in contrast to previous versions of Windows, which
continue to require separate drivers for USB 3.0/USB 3.1 Gen 1 controllers.
Microsoft announced that Windows 7 would have USB 3.1 Gen 1 support, perhaps not on its immediate release, but in a subsequent Service
Pack or update. It is not out of the question to think that following a successful release of USB 3.0/USB 3.1 Gen 1 support in Windows 7,
SuperSpeed support would trickle down to Vista. Microsoft has confirmed this by stating that most of their partners share the opinion that
Vista should also support USB 3.0/USB 3.1 Gen 1.
USB Powershare
USB PowerShare is a feature which allows for external USB devices (i.e. cellular phones, portable music players, etc.) to charge using the
portable system's battery.
Only the USB connector with a
SS+USB+Battery
-->
icon, can be used.
This functionality is enabled in the system setup under the
On Board Devices
heading. You can select how much of the battery's charge
can be used as well (pictured below). If you set the USB PowerShare to 25%, the external device is allowed to charge until the battery
reaches 25% of full capacity (e.g. 75% of the portable's battery charge is used up).
USB Type-C
USB Type-C is a new, tiny physical connector. The connector itself can support various exciting new USB standards like USB 3.1 and USB
power delivery (USB PD).
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Technology and components
