FireFold blog

It has been almost ten years since USB 2.0 was released, and the industry is still waiting for USB 3.0 to pervade the technological landscape. After USB 3.0 was officially finished and released on November 17, 2008, there was still no sight of a product incorporating it one year later. Today, one year and five months later, there are just a handful of products like motherboards and external hard drives, that are sporting USB 3.0. Dubbed “SuperSpeed USB,” the standard seems to have been plagued with delays from the gate.

Having lamented the disappointments, the good news is Microsoft and other industry leaders have stated that broad-scale deployment is expected this year. This is good news for those of us who love speed and productivity when it comes to computers… and don’t we all.

Will I recognize it?

The new USB 3.0 plugs have the same metal exoskeleton, but with bright blue plastic internals (not black), so you’ll recognize 3.0 when you see it. Upon close up inspection, the new connectors may look minutely different due to modifications, but the new jacks are backwards compatible with 2.0 and prior plugs. What you can’t see under the hood, is that USB 3.0 has added four more wires for data transfer along side of the previous two, making a total of six wires for data delivery. The additional wires comprise the new “SuperSpeed” data bus.

What will it do?

Speed is the name of the game for USB 3.0. Although none of the USB standards can truly achieve the maximum theoretical speeds, the increase from 2.0 to 3.0 is still on the order of ten-fold. With an effective speed of 3.2 Gbps, the 4.8 Gbps standard is still blazing at the lower real-world numbers. At this stage of the game, any data transfer in Gigabits should impress most of us and satisfy our needs.

Unlike 2.0, USB 3.0 devices will conserve power when they are not in use. When in use, 3.0 will deliver 50-80% more power than its predecessor. The obvious advantage will be faster charging for digital devices. More power on tap will also expand the breadth of products that can use the new USB connection… opening up an opportunity to run more power-hungry devices that could not previously operate on USB 2.0 power levels.

As Megabits get left behind, and Gigabits become the de facto measure of data transfer, USB 2.0 will soon pass the baton to USB 3.0. Through the backstretch, around the bend, and down the straightaway, the technology spectators are anxious to see what the “SuperSpeedy” standard is capable of.