We’ve seen the first step in USB 3.0 which is the USB host controller.  This gives motherboards the opportunity for USB 3.0 devices to connect.  Now we are starting to see other system support peripherals such as the USB 3.0 hub.

VIA announced their USB 3.0 four port hub this week just days before CES 2010.  We fully expect others to make a similar announcement during the CES show, but VIA, thus far, has beat everyone to the punch.

The USB 3.0 hub supports 4 downstream ports and one upstream port.  The board is powered via AC and VIA claims to have improved the power management in the USB 3.0 hubs to allow attached devices to enter into a lower power state when not being used. The chip itself is based on advanced 80nm CMOS technology which makes it a more power efficient USB hub controller.

VIA did indicate the USB 3.0 hub is not only backward compatible, but also supports the full 5Gb/s transfer rate USB 3.0 calls for.  No word on price, but I’m forecasting a 50% increase in price over traditional USB hubs.

VIA press release.

SuperTalent announce their USB 3.0 flash drive in November of 2009.  Today we have a short video of that drive in action.  You can see the performance of the device is much greater than any 2.0 device.  How would you like to copy files at 78MB per second?

I spoke with SuperTalent last night and still no word on official price or official launch date.

Source: SuperTalent.

USB.org put out this semi-tech, self promoting video on the new USB 3.0 Superspeed. Take a look:

GetUSB has been waiting for this announcement for about 8 months now.  Super Talent just announced the first [of what we know] USB 3.0 flash drive.

Wow.

Wouldn’t you love to have a USB flash drive that could copy files at the rate of 200MB per second?  Using a separate UAS Protocol driver with a USB 3.0 port this SuperSpeed drive can reach up to 320MB/sec transfer speeds.

Wow.

It’s a bit large, but hell, who cares.  Size is 95 x 37 x13.5 mm  The USB 3.0 USB flash drive will be shipping with 32GB, 64GB and 128GB sizes.  No word on price, but let me give you an idea…at the time of this writing, Super Talent offers their USB 2.0 32GB drive for (more…)

We’ve been talking about USB 3.0 for almost one year now and last week we hear the maker, Intel, is looking to put on the breaks.  This isn’t the first time Intel has rallied the industry, gotten chip makers to support it, then corporate shut it down via lack of integration [Wireless USB].

What the general population might not understand is that USB is a fairly inconsistent bus for enumeration with peripherals.  Sure, for the average user their USB devices work, but for an engineer or tech savvy user, they all pretty much agree - USB is problematic.

Maybe this is just one reason why Intel is slowing it’s adoption of it…the other is probably the new development of Light Peak.  Light Peak is a fiber optical cable which supports up to 10Gbps [now] and expandability to 100Gbps [future].  Light Peak doesn’t use complicated protocols like (more…)

2010 will be a fun year of USB reporting and blogging with USB 3.0 just starting to break with new products.  Today we have the first USB  3.0 WebCam from Point Grey.  The webcam has the bandwidth and capability to push a full 1080p video stream without compression.

Since USB host controllers are not yet available, Point Grey has teamed with Fresco Logic to include a USB 3.0 PCI interface card.

EverythingUSB brings up a good point with these new USB 3.0 devices, they will actually become cheaper than their slower, 2.0 predecessors.  The reason being:  less logic and hardware is required inside the device to do processing such as compression and decompression, USB 3.0 now simply push the data through the pipe.

The Point Grey Webcamera is slatted to display at the IDF 2009 conference in San Fransicso in a couple weeks.

Point Grey USB webcam product page [here].

The USBIF [Implementers Forum] has announced the certification program to get your gear certified for a Highspeed logo.  Granted, it’s not a simple process, but at least they’re putting together the documentation needed to make it happen.

As Gizmodo says, ” what shall I do with all that extra time I will have that will no longer be spent waiting for file transfers” [they write about as well as I do] The new 3.0 speed will be 10x times faster at 10Gpbs!  To learn a bit more about how our technology life will improve, here is the USBIFs sales pitch:

As technology innovation marches forward, new kinds of devices, media formats, and large inexpensive storage are converging. They require significantly more bus bandwidth to maintain the interactive experience users have come to expect. In addition, user applications demand a higher performance connection between the PC and these increasingly sophisticated peripherals. USB 3.0 addresses this need by adding an even higher transfer rate to match these new usage and devices.

USB continues to be the answer to conncectivity for PC, Consumer Electronics, and Mobile architectures, It is a fast, bidirectional, low-cost, dynamically attachable interface that is consistent with the requirements of the PC platforms of today and tomorrow.

SuperSpeed USB brings significant performance enhancements to the ubiquitous USB standard, while remaining compatible with the billions of USB enabled devices currently deployed in the market. SuperSpeed USB will deliver 10x the data transfer rate of Hi-Speed USB, as well as improved power efficiency.

• SuperSpeed USB has a 5 Gbps signaling rate offering 10x performance increase over Hi-Speed USB.
• SuperSpeed USB is a Sync-N-Go technology that minimizes user wait-time.
• SuperSpeed USB will provide Optimized Power Efficiency.No device polling and lower active and idle power requirements.
• SuperSpeed USB is backwards compatible with USB 2.0. Devices interoperate with USB 2.0 platforms. Hosts support USB 2.0 legacy devices.

Video after the jump: (more…)