Usb 3

The campany (Novatech) I work for have just got in some of the new USB 3 cards. USB 3 - woot! It's about time it came out for general release!

Here are some general USB 3 specs-

Compatibility
USB 1.0, 1.1 and 2.0 devices will be fully compatible with USB 3.0 cards.
USB 3.0 devices which take advantage of USB 3.0 capabilities will only work from a USB 3.0 port.
The new USB 3.0 capabilities are referred to as SuperSpeed.

Speed
USB has steadily climbed in speed since it came out, with large speed increases with each major version. USB 3 has not disappointed. Please see below

USB 1.0 and USB 1.1 run at 12 Mbps (Megabits per second). That's 12/8=1.5 MB (MegaBytes) per second
USB 2.0 runs at 480 Mbps. That's 480/8=60 MB per second
USB 3.0 run at 4.8 Gbps. That's 4800/8=600 MB per second (10 times faster USB 2.0).

This speed increase is part of the SuperSpeed spec and applicable only to USB 3.0 devices. Other devices will go at their designed speeds (12 Mbps for USB 1.x, 480 Mbps for USB 2.0)

Also keep in mind that the above speeds are theoretical maximums and you tend to find that you get about 60% to 80% of the listed speed.

Power
USB 2.0 has a single USB device limit of 100mA with a maximum of 500mA being drawn by multiple devices (i.e. total mount your allowed to draw from the port).
USB 3.0 allows 150mA (0.15 Amps) per device with a maxmum of 900mA (0.9 Amps) for multiple devices.
So that's 50% more for a single USB device, 80% more for multiple devices.
This power increase is part of the SuperSpeed spec and applicable only to USB 3.0 devices.

Port Connection
USB 3.0 will definately be coming out on high end motherboards soonish (I'm betting ASUS who have already tried), but in the meantime if you want it you will have to purchase an add-in PCI-Express card. The cards I can find available are PCI-Express x1 and PCI-Express x4, with the x4 ones having multiple controllers and being able handle data much more efficiently. Some cards require a molex power connection from the PSU.
There appears to be no sign of a straight PCI variant yet - and may not be due to the bottlenecks that might occur on the PCI bus through to the south bridge.

Cable Types & Lengths
Previous versions of USB could withstand cable lengths of 5 metres (16 feet) without needing to be power boosted. From what I can find out the maxmim for USB 3.0 devices will be 3 metres (10 feet). This is the only downside I can find thus far egarding USB 3.0

The ports on the USB 3.0 cards are the standard 'A' type ports you'll be used to with USB 2.0. However the USB 3.0 devices will have a slightly different 'B' port which looks similar to the standard USB 'B' port (found in the device you plug the cable into) but slightly 'higher'.
You can plug a USB1.x/2 cable into both a USB 3.0 card and a USB 3.0 devices, but you will not be able to plug a USB 3.0 Superspeed cable into a USB1.x/2.0 device.

OS Support
The cards we have support Windows XP, Vista, 7, 2003, 2008. I have no idea if they support Linux (I suspect not as it normally takes revision update to add support for something like this)

I hope the above is informative

banedon

ASUS have around 5 M/B with usb3 on them and sata 6gb support

http://uk.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID...n2V&templete=2

Thought ASUS would be there first. I have seen that everyone (ASUS in this case) is rounding the speeds to 5 Gbps per second but it's actually 4.8 from what I can tell.

We had some USB 3 kits in the office early last year, max transfer we could get out of them was 190mb/s so they've obviously been to town on their firmware because it was god awful last time I used it.

Best thing about it is developers have more access to USB internal settings now, including voltage settings woot

So now we just wait until something useful is out which uses Oooh-Ess-Beeh-Free? I remember the good old days of habing to upgrade to USB 2.0 and the PCI cards cost about £35 for 2 ports. Good times.

Bah humbug! I hate new stuff, it makes my rig feel even older!

I have to say though, I was pretty surprised at what a huge performance increase there seems to be from USB 2.0. Don't really want to upgrade my rig though just for this

Just buy a PCI-express x1 card and you're good to go. Simples

Originally Posted by NickyBoyJunior

Bah humbug! I hate new stuff, it makes my rig feel even older!

I have to say though, I was pretty surprised at what a huge performance increase there seems to be from USB 2.0. Don't really want to upgrade my rig though just for this

upgrading isnt the big deal, like bane said, pcie cards take care of that. it is all them peripherals that take the upgrading, and right now, there just are not enough to justify even wasting the time. the only ones that truly matter are your external HDD, and unless you plan to pay extra for the new ones, why upgrade to begin with...the premium is WAY to high IMHO.