USB 3.0

USB (abbreviated as Universal Serial Bus) is the way of setting up communication between a computer and peripheral devices. It is intended to replace many kinds of serial and parallel ports. Today technology allows us to connect a variety of devices like mice, gaming consoles, video and audio devices and other kinds of commonly used gadgets that require Computer or computer based device as its operating device. An example here can be an IPod that uses a USB interface to connect to a computer to download songs, videos, stream online articles like RSS feeds or simply as a means of charging its batteries.

One of the best enhancements to computers in the last 10 years has been the addition of USB ports. If you purchase a desktop computer, this type of connection is probably used for the mouse, keyboard, and printer connections. In addition, many general purpose connections like a thumb drive use this port. One of the best attributes is that the connection can be made without restarting the computer.

USB is the most versatile and popular computer interconnect ever. To date, over 6 billion ports have been sold.

So what makes this interface of so much particular interest? The answer can be its simplicity and the ease of operation. USB 3.0 is just one of the terms in its class of series development which dates back to 1996 when USB 1.0 series was first introduced. Since then this interface has been making significant progress and contributing towards our over growing thirst and speed for technology.USB 2.0 has been the standard since 2002 and has a data transfer rate limit of 480 Mb/sec. That rate is good for most applications, but is wanting for applications like video.

The new specification is predictably called USB 3.0 (also called "SuperSpeed"). 3.0 is capable of data transfer rates of 4.8 Gb/sec (10X faster than 2.0). 3.0 is a version that is similar to PCIe Gen2 signal techniques, but with a connector cosmetically similar to the connector to which we are accustomed. A 30 GB HDTV movie that takes about 15 minutes to transfer with 2.0 will take less than 90 seconds with 3.0. The connectors were shown to the general public for the first time at last year's CES (Consumer's Electronics Show). Equipment designed to meet 3.0 will be backward compatible with 2.0 hardware, but when a 3.0 device is connected to a 2.0 device, the performance will be at 2.0 performance levels.

3.0 has more pins than 2.0 (9 instead of 4), but the connector remains compatible with the old form factor. Pins 1-4 are called the "USB 2.0 Pins" and Pins 5-9 are referred to as the "SuperSpeed pins". When interconnecting a USB 2.0 connector with a 3.0 connector, pins 5-9 will be open. There are two mechanical configurations for 3.0. "Standard A" connectors are fully compatible with 2.0. 3.0 devices are not required to be compatible with 1.1 and older devices.

"The future of computing and consumer devices is increasingly visual and bandwidth intensive. Lifestyles filled with HD media and digital audio demand quick and universal data transfer. 3.0 is an answer to the future bandwidth need of the PC platform." Phil Eisler, President of the chipset business unit at Advanced Micro Devices.