Intel hindering USB 3.0 adoption, alleges industry insider Intel has decided to wait until 2011 before it introduces PC chipsets with integrated USB 3.0 controllers. So a senior mole at a major PC maker has claimed, at any rate. The insider this week told EETimes the move will push demand for the 4.8Gb/s bus technology back a year. Even if Intel is anticipating that USB 3.0 chipsets …
And the selling point for USB 3 is? Yet to see any real reason why it's needed now.
Yes, improved data transfer rates... USB 2 is good enough for the majority of user and uses... The average user is used to and doesn't complain too much when waiting a few minutes to transfer the latest and greatest film they downloaded from the Internet from one device to another. Why? Because it's a tangible length - i.e. a 90 minute film and copying it in 5 minutes isn't seen as a chore because it's still much quicker than 90 minutes!
Besides, until devices such as mobile phones and cheap affordable "memory sticks" actually support USB 3 then few people will care.
As for the alternatives - streaming video high speed camera interfaces - exactly how many people have these and Internet links that aren't still considerably slower than the USB link?
Most chip sets have one USB2 interface, a few USB1 interfaces and lots of USB ports. When you plug a USB1 device into a port it is assigned a USB1 interface if there is one left (If not, it trashes the performance of the USB2 interface). All USB2 devices share the 480Mb/s of the only USB2 interface. A modern hard disk can use all the bandwidth in USB2.
If you plug a ten of USB2 hard disks into a USB3 hub, they get almost 480Mb/s each. This is not a feature I would use every month, but some people might like to use their hi-res webcam while backing up.
As already pointed out, what use will this be when current USB-2 is faster than most USB flash drives are capable of? (see the recent el Reg review for the less than stellar performance of most)
I will also wait to see if its any less crap then other USB devices in performance, e.g. 400 Mbit/sec FireWire drives being faster than 480 Mbit/sec USB, so how will they compare to eSATA?
Well I guess it depends on what type of user you are.
I regularly back up 5-10 gb and would certainly welcome 5-6 times faster backup.
Most people consider upgrading their processor for just a 10-15% improvement so when a technology comes along that promises up to 10x faster transfer, well then I certainly get excited.
I also think as the speed improves, people will start seeing external USB devices as viable. At the moment i think it is being held back by its slow transfer rate.
As devices get smaller and smaller, how is that USB 3 cable going to work well? It has more wires than Cat 6 and it's going to take a good amount of power to send 5Gbps down a long twisted pair. If USB 3.0 isn't targeting small devices, it has strong competition from existing cable designs. I can see why Intel would want to skip USB 3 and work on its successor.
"A modern hard disk can use all the bandwidth in USB2" - which is why I use eSATA for *my* modern hard disk when doing backups.
Jeez, people, a decent eSATA dock is only US$80 on NewEgg, not too much more expensive than a decent USB enclosure.
Everything else I have (memory sticks, cameras, scanner, printer, WinTV-PVR USB2) doesn't need USB3 speed. I can understand Intel's attitude that this isn't as important as other things.
its all well and good talking about if intel dont do it, what ai want to know is weres the 3rd party add-ins today, what power does this new standard work at and can i FINALLY plug my Wireless USB stick into my 3 meter USB lad and have it get more than enough power from the generic cards output.....
right now i cant get a fully relaable working USB stick to work at that length, how about pluging in two USB leads and getting a generic USB device to actually work, such things are used for extending my Wireless USBs in server/master mode so i can far better control my wireless USB devices as use them as APs on a stick remotely IF the USB card wold just power them at longer lengths upto 50 feet preferably....
peope seem to also be wondering whats the point of faster USB3, its simple, the 3d partys ethernet OEMs DO NOT SEEM Interested to giving us end users On Mass anything faster than the antiquated 1 gigabit/s wired LAN, USB3 has the potential IF they will again power over a longer length to give us faster file transfers, and its not going to be hard to write a software patch to interface the USB3 stack into the Ethernat stack so bypassing the RTLs and other etehrnet OEMs of this unwillingness to give us what we want to buy, far faster ethernet AND Generic MS ethernet card Binding for the SOHO/Home LAN.
i always wished 3rd partys would have made cheap external ethernet hard drive cases and provided a power over Ethernet line as standard for all home LAN users to buy but they dont seem interested in that profile line and thats a shame...
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