Currently Shipping : USB 3.0 Gear For PC and Mac

The USB3 market is finally taking off. Many PC and Mac users are already enjoying the benefits of SuperSpeed with ExpressCard and PCI USB3 cards and USB 3 hard drives that to advantage of USB 3.0 SuperSpeed data bandwidth. Intel's new Ivy-Bridge chipsets used in the latest Apple MacBooks and Windows laptops and PC's are poised to deliver milions of USB 3 enabled computers by year's end.

USB3 SuperSpeed Accessories For Windows and Mac

The USB 3.0 spec is really taking off in 2012. Chipsets are being manufactured, tested, implemented in computer logic boards and peripherals. On the Windows side of things: Gigabyte, MSI and ASUS are shipping motherboards, laptops and NetBooks with USB 3.0 support. NEC and Texas Intruments SuperSpeed chipsets are now in their 2nd generation. All the early legwork is now showing up in USB 3.0 peripherals. Another wave of USB-IF certified SuperSpeed products are growing.

Backwards Compatible with USB 1.1 & 2.0 Speed Peripherals

USB 3.0 will continue to work with your existing USB 2.0 and 1.1 computer accessories: Keyboards, mice, printers, backup hard drives, portable speakers, HD TV Tuner sticks, Digital Cameras - while bringing a new era of high-speed peripherals to the market.

USB 3 SuperSpeed Cables, Hubs, Connectors and Adapters

Better. Faster. The new USB 3.0 specification has the same sized Type A cable connector as USB 1.1 and 2.0. At first glance the 'A' cable looks identical, but inside there are 5 additional pins that USB3 cables can detect to handle the higher signaling rates.

At the device end new 'B' size plugs as seen below will become common, as well as a new mini USB 3 plug standard for gizmos like digital cameras and other small form-factor devices.

How Fast Is 3.0 Universal Serial Bus Technology?

The first Universal Serial Bus specification brough easy-to-connect peripheral standard to the masses. USB 1.1 was 12MB per second, which was fine for relatively sow peripherals like keyboards, mice and printers. USB 2.0 - at potentially 480MB per second, was literally FOURTY TIMES FASTER - a huge leap forward. USB 2.0 was significant for far faster hard drive backups, flash-drive data transfers, high-resolution standalone scanners and All-In-Ones. USB 2.0 was also important for enabling high-resolution web cameras, video capture devices and TV tuners which demand more bandwidth.

USB 3.0 will deliver even more bandwidth with 4.8Gbps SuperSpeed - A TEN-FOLD leap over USB 2.0. USB3 also has refinements for lower CPU utilization, reduced device polling, and better, low-power management. Unlike it's predecessors - USB 3.0 also supports more efficient BIDIRECTIONAL data transfers - a significant advance over USB2's one-way, uni-directional model.

Which Computer Accessories Need 4.8Gbps Bandwidth?

USB 3 peripherals are potentially up to 10x faster than USB 2.0 This extra bandwidth will allow a new generation of HD USB3 camcorders, High-Definiton USB 3.0 HDTV Tuners, as well as bandwidth hungry flash memory based Solid-State Disk Drive options. Solid-State backup drives in particular will demand and make fantastic use of version 3.0 Super-Speed advantages. Faster handheld device syncing of next generation USB3 enabled all sorts of mobile gadgets, iPods or iPhones to benefit as new models adopt this new interface standard.

PCI Cards and ExpressCard USB 3.0 Adapters

NEC Japan is shipping 2nd-generation silicon USB 3.0 controllers. These are backwards compatible with legacy USB 1.1 and USB 2.0 devices - in addition to support for USB 3.0 Superspeed (5Gbps) along with the older 480Mbps, 12Mbps, and the 1.5Mbps specifications.

ExpressCard 2.0 Specification Needs To Support USB SuperSpeed

Many laptop computers include an ExpressCard slot. However, current Express-Card specs can't support USB3's *FULL* potential speed. ExpressCard's current theoretcial bandwitdh is only 2.5Gbps rather than 4.8. So in many ways, the next generation -- ExpressCard 2.0 -- had to wait for USB 3.0 specs to finalize before ExpressCard's final architechture and needs could be spec'd out. It too will be backward compatible.