USB 3.0 The New Connectors

[Eclecticos]

Although still in the prototype stage, USB 3.0 is aiming for 10 times the bandwidth of current USB2.0 solutions, or approximately 5Gbps. Since this requires fiber optic cabling, USB 3.0 will add a length of optical data cable to the mix, though USB 3.0 will retain full compatibility with USB 2.0 and, USB 1.0 as well.

Final version specifications to be finished by the first half of 2008,
with USB 3.0 peripherals realistically appearing in 2009 or 2010.

[Xpirate]

Oh boy, we all get to buy new cables. I guess it is the price you pay for higher speed USB.

[Luke122]

5gbps would make for some nice external storage solutions.

[crenn]

They should have made it 6gbps

[Collinstheclown]

Read about this a few months ago. It's going to be faster then SATA, so goodbye internal drives.




-CollinstheClown

[crenn]

Doesn't anyone know about SATAIII?!

[mtekk]

Read about this a few months ago. It's going to be faster then SATA, so goodbye internal drives.

I doubt it, remember that is theoretical max speed. You can't get SMART data over USB (at least it doesn't do it natively like IDE or SATA). Besides, no traditional hard drive can max out SATA (read/write to disk, not cache), it won't matter until either hybrid hard drives come out, or SSDs get a lot cheaper and speed up a tad.

Doesn't anyone know about SATAIII?!

It's SATA 6.0Gb/s , and it's just around the bend.

[Quakken]

But for now, usb will no longer be the weak point in external data transfer.

[J-Roc]

i thought firewire was supposed to be the next best thing above usb2.0. What happened with that?

[nevermind1534]

I think it still is, and will be until USB 3.0.. I 'm not currently aware of a firewire 2.0. It's kind of weird that it's the only thing that's never really been upgraded, other than the legacy ports.