USB 3.0 Now Available [Products, Specification]

The wait is over, The USB 3.0 specification is now available publicly in consumer products after it saw initial launch at CES 2010.

Tighten your seatbelts coz it’s getting 10x time faster with speeds upto 5gbps from 480 mbps of USB 2.0.

In order to get USB 3.0, you need to have a new motherboard that support it or Alternatively, a new cable with a new host adapter. The good part is that USB 3.0 is backward compatible with USB 2.0. What this means is that you can still use the device on a USB 2.0 port and achieve typical USB 2.0 performance. USB 3.0 is a revolution, though its 10x times faster, it still consumes one-third the power of USB 2.0 — Indeed a greener solution.

However, the actual speed improvement may be totally dependent on the peripherals you connect e.g. external storage device should be capable of running at a speed higher than practical speed of USB 2.0 to see improvements. A Normal SATA drive will not give any improvements. Expect better performance from RAIDed hard drives or fast solid-state drives (SSDs) than from, say, a standalone single drive connected to the computer via USB 3.0.

USB 3.0’s crucial advantage lies  for high-def video, music, and digital imaging applications. Another benefit from USB 3.0 is that it is a powered port, so you don’t need to have another external power supply running to the drive.

New Devices on USB 3.0
WD My Book 3.0 was the first one to get USB 3.0 last year, other vendors like Seagate, LaCie, Rocstor, and Iomegahave also unveiled compatible drives adding a huge line to the compatible products during an event at CES. Others like Buffalo had already shipped products that were not fully compliant.

One of the things to look for is the certified SuperSpeed USB 3.0 logo. Products are currently filling the queues at the official certification testing labs, but presence of that certification logo will give you some peace of mind that the product you’re buying truly does live up to the USB 3.0 spec. Certification labs are jammed up, you can expect companies to release USB 3.0 products without official certification, and would be difficult to judge if those products truly live upto the mark so it’s a must that you lookout for that logo.

As said by USB official:

“We don’t have that issue with USB 3.0 To claim you’re USB 3.0, you have to deliver 5Gbps. There’s no other way to get the certification.” Ravencraft adds that the group is prepared to protect the USB 3.0 logo, to make sure that only manufacturers who go through certification use it. “We’ll take legal action if anyone infringes on our marks.”

As far as Notebooks go,  HP (EliteBook)and Fujitsu have announced limited USB 3.0 support and MSI is already marked for 2010 Q3. In this year, the only announced peripherals remain storage devices. However,  at CES 2011 we would see more specific consumer electronics devices such as digital cameras and camcorders and video cameras moving to USB 3.0.

As more USB 3.0 becomes available, we will be talking about them, review them. You can get updates via Twitter @taranfx or by subscribing below. We write about Tech Hardware and Gadgets  frequently: