NEC announces first USB 3.0 host controllerNew in this neck of the woodsBy Sylvie BarakTuesday, 19 May 2009, 16:30-pd720200NEC ELECTRONICS has announced what looks to be the world's first USB host controller supporting the new USB 3.0 standard.The controller, or µPD720200 as it has been catchily dubbed, is purportedly designed for higher-performance transfer options on upcoming PCs, external hard drives and portable electronics. It's also backwardly compatible with USB 2.0, 1.1 and 1.0 for any slow pokes out there.According to industry specs, the USB 3 standard should be able to support transfer speeds of up to five Gbps, some 10 times faster than the current USB 2.0 standard. It can also apparently transfer 25GB of video content to a Blu-ray Disc at the stunning speed of 480Mbps.According to NEC, µPD720200 is also compatible with PCI Express and SATA, both capable of speeds of over three Gbps.The best thing about USB 3, though, is that it finally does away with the profoundly irritating CPU polling older USB revs are known for. After all, USB was originally designed in an era where everything was supposed to run on a machine's CPU, invariably helping both Intel and AMD sell higher-grade processors than users actually needed, to stop the effect of clogging by oodles of interrupts. The problem is so acute, some users prefer PS/2 keyboards and mice to this day.NEC's offering will be available from June, with the µPD720200 costing $15 a piece. The firm says each unit will be sold with free Windows driver software and that monthly production should reach 1,000,000 units by September of this year.NEC has been a member of the USB Implementers Forum since 1996, and it's not the first time the company has stuck its, er, neck out to introduce a standards-based product ahead of its peers. Back in 2000, the firm launched the first USB 2.0-compliant host controller chip, with the μPD720100.We're just happy all involved in the USB 3 fracas have finally decided to behave like adults, so the technology can finally progress. µ
^^Yupz. For instance my 8GB Delkin usb drive copies a full 4.7GB DVD iso much faster than an 8GB kingston datatraveller drive. Read/write speed actually mean something yes.
More USB 3.0 demos tip upBandwagon super-speeds upBy Sylvie BarakWednesday, 20 May 2009, 19:40USB 3.0 IS gaining momentum, with a plethora of companies showing off their new super-speed wares at a USB Developers Conference in Tokyo.After NEC announced its (and the world's) first USB host controller supporting the new USB 3.0 standard on Monday, other firms have been quick to get in line with their own offerings and demos, most notably Fujitsu Microelectronics, LucidPort Technology and Fresco Logic.USB 3.0, AKA SuperSpeed USB, the spec for which was released in November 2008, will deliver throughput at 5Gbps, 10 times that of USB 2.0. The standard is also backwardly compatible, uses less power, boasts simultaneous bi-directional data transmission and is generally nifty in all things pertaining to the movement of HD content and multi-Gigabyte sized files between PCs and external storage devices.At the show, fabless semi, Fresco Logic, demonstrated the potential for system-level interoperability between its SuperSpeed USB extensible host controller interface (xHCI) adapter and a USB 3.0 SATA bridge device from Fujitsu Microelectronics.In another demo, NEC showed a PC host transferring data to a mass-storage device from LucidPort.Jeff Ravencraft, USB-IF president and chairman said he was pleased with the "intense interest and market need" surrounding USB 3.0, adding its features had "resulted in excitement from silicon vendors, electronics manufacturers, and consumers alike."The USB-IF reckons USB 3.0 products will be available for punter purchase by early 2010.Meanwhile, IDC is predicting SuperSpeed USB will ship in 45 per cent of mobile PCs by 2012. µ
