USB 3.0: characteristics, peripherals and connectivity options

Made available by some manufacturers, but not by Intel or AMD yet!
USB 3.0 is certainly taking its time to appear on motherboards and peripheral devices. There are plenty of articles about why this standard is more than two years behind schedule, with large players like Intel and AMD believing that HighSpeed USB (USB 2.0) is still more than satisfactory in the majority of cases. SuperSpeed is aimed more at a minor market, servicing video or high definition cameras. We will therefore have to wait until the end of 2010 and into 2011 to be able to finally make the transition from USB 2.0 to USB 3.0. Some manufacturers like Gigabyte, Asus, Hewlett-Packard and Dell are already anticipating this by making their desktop PC’s and top of the line laptops compatible, with one or two USB 3.0 running at 5 Gbit/s installed.

SuperSpeed and the various operating systems? Support for USB 3.0 is still in development for the Windows Visa and Seven operating systems in 32 and 63 bit versions, although the use of this standard is possible by adding the SuperSpeed USB Software and Hardware Tools. As for Windows XP, no information has been released but with the addition of controller cards that are already available on the market, and their drivers (Gigabyte, Trust, Asus, NEC, ASRock, Buffalo…) it should be possible to adapt your computer to compatible devices. The GNU/Linux distributions with kernel 2.6.31 natively support USB 3.0 xHCI controllers. While at Apple, we are still waiting for support!

USB 3.0 – fast enough for which devices?
The theoretic bandwidth of USB 3.0 is 4.8 Gbit/s (600 Mb/s), although in tests conducted the bandwidth witnessed was really 3.2 Gbit/s (400 Mb/s) which is more than enough for all kinds of applications. Of course, we are thinking about general file transfers and in particular High Definition files (video cameras and reflex digital cameras), as well as external hard drives for data backup and Blu-ray burners, like that released by Buffalo. Laser printers for quick information transfer and scanners for high resolution scans will also benefit from the additional speed provided with the improved Standard-B port.