With today's ever increasing demands placed on data transfers with high-definition video content, terabyte storage devices, high
megapixel count digital cameras etc., USB 2.0 may not be fast enough. Furthermore, no USB 2.0 connection could ever come close to the
480Mbps theoretical maximum throughput, making data transfer at around 320Mbps (40MB/s) — the actual real-world maximum.
Similarly, USB 3.0 connections will never achieve 4.8Gbps. We will likely see a real-world maximum rate of 400MB/s with overheads. At
this speed, USB 3.0 is a 10x improvement over USB 2.0.
Applications
USB 3.0 opens up the laneways and provides more headroom for devices to deliver a better overall experience. Where USB video was
barely tolerable previously (both from a maximum resolution, latency, and video compression perspective), it's easy to imagine that with
5-10 times the bandwidth available, USB video solutions should work that much better. Single-link DVI requires almost 2Gbps throughput.
Where 480Mbps was limiting, 5Gbps is more than promising. With its promised 4.8Gbps speed, the standard will find its way into some
products that previously weren't USB territory, like external RAID storage systems.
Listed below are some of the available SuperSpeed USB 3.0 products:
•
External Desktop USB 3.0 Hard Drives
•
Portable USB 3.0 Hard Drives
•
USB 3.0 Drive Docks & Adapters
•
USB 3.0 Flash Drives & Readers
•
USB 3.0 Solid-state Drives
•
USB 3.0 RAIDs
•
Optical Media Drives
•
Multimedia Devices
•
Networking
•
USB 3.0 Adapter Cards & Hubs
Compatibility
The good news is that USB 3.0 has been carefully planned from the start to peacefully co-exist with USB 2.0. First of all, while USB 3.0
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 cables and only come into contact when
connected to a proper SuperSpeed USB connection.
Windows 8 will be bringing native support for USB 3.0 controllers. This is in contrast to previous versions of Windows, which continue to
require separate drivers for USB 3.0 controllers.
Technology and components
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