Intel Releases USB 3.0 Controller Interface Spec

hardsky submitted thrilling news about everyone's favorite interconnect cable by saying "USB 3.0 is set to deliver data-transfer speeds of up to 5Gb/s, initially over tweaked connectors and wiring and, later, over optical links."

One Question

Does USB 3.0 assist in the more rapid delivery of porn to my PC?

If the answer is "Yes", then please continue with your announcement.

Re:One Question

Does USB 3.0 assist in the more rapid delivery of porn to my PC?

Why, yes of course! The internet tubes will be replaced with USB 3.0, which is easily done because USB hubs are very cheap. When this is done, everybody will have 5 Gb/s!

Not ready.

I am personally waiting for USB 3.11 for Workgroups to come out before upgrading.

Sigh

Still the same symmetrical plug design....stupid, stupid move. Would have been that hard to add a ridge on one side or something, so you don't have to stare at the end??

Re:Sigh

yea we know its but here are the reasons its needed 1) Backwards compatible 2) Fit more ports in a smaller area, less wasted space 3) Cheaper for manufactures because the mounts are the same thus making it a cheaper industry upgrade to adopt.

Embossing

Yes, the USB connector is blind accessible. The "top" of the A plug's plastic part is supposed to be embossed with a USB logo, and the "bottom" isn't supposed to be embossed. So if you know which way is "up" on your PC's connector, or if you are using a hub (in which case up is more obvious), you can more easily plug them in blind.

Re:Embossing

The problem is that the host-connector has no markings, and sometimes "up" might be either left, right, up or down relative the up of the device itself.

What they should have done, from the beginning of USB, was to have the connector truly symmetric, so that you could plug it in either way.

Re:Sigh

Most UBB connectors have a USB symbol on one side which means (this side up). I'd never really thought about this until someone gave me an iPod. I then found that I was forever struggling to get the connector in.

What I concluded was happening was:

1. I'd sub-consciously worked out that the connector is inserted USB symbol up.
2. The Apple USB connector has the USB symbol on, but on the other side it has an Apple symbol.
3. My sub-conscious was in fact not distinguishing between USB symbol and Apple symbol. Instead the logic was something like, "that side has a symbol on, I'll put it facing upwards".

I'm quite sure that the "symbol faces up" convention is a part of the USB spec. I never needed to know this because my brain naturally worked it out without it ever entering my consciousness. This is a truly wonderful piece of human interface design and yet those morons from Apple go and break it with an inane piece of branding. Way to go Apple. Anyone who ever thinks that Apple cares about usability should think again.

Re:Sigh

If it takes you more than two tries to put in a USB plug, you probably shouldn't be allowed near a computer anyway.

Re:Sigh

Never had this:

Try the correct way.
Try the other way.
Try the correct way again.
Look at plug
Insert screwdriver to bend plug back into shape
Try the correct way.

Re:Sigh

What. You've never had plug rage? The last time was trying to get the power plug off a 10-year old hard drive. It seemed to have been superglued.

My god

My humping USB dog [thinkgeek.com] will be a blur!

Everyone's Favorite?

"hardsky submitted thrilling news about everyone's favorite interconnect cable..."

Don't know about anyone else, but my favorite interconnect cable is something very, very, different.

Re:Everyone's Favorite?

Yeah! Mini-USB!

eSATA?

I'm certain that USB3 will be "supposed to be" backward with USB 1; 1.1; 2, but will likely only be backwards compatible with 2. Right now, a Hard disk cannot keep up with eSATA at 1.5 Gb/s, nevermind eSATA at 3Gb/s. For the past year or so, many of us have been buying $15 eSATA cards for our old computers, and new computers with eSATA built in. Considering that external HD cases with eSATA connectors cost only about $16 (something with 4 eggs, at Newegg) what is the benefit?

Possible benefits would be increased transfer speed to peripheral devices, but can we reasonably expect devices that fast by then? Personally, I would hope that 10Gb/s ethernet would come down in price by then. The only real benefit I see with the proposed USB3 is something for a processor core to do....

$.02

PS: I will give a possible something to do mention to Hard Disk (Solid-State) video recorders... but they could use eSATA as well & still be saturated..

Re:Great!

simple answer: yes

Complicated answer:
Progress is inevitable and we definitely need that kind of speed. Its not only about hard drives but also about Audio visual components. Such as an USB HDTV Dongle which is a bit slow for USB 2.0. It is also one of the reasons why webcams currently max out at 2.0 megapixels. anything more than that the current USB 2.0 cannot handle. It is quite easy to eat through those 600MB/s, Just think of the USB 3.0 replacing 1000mbit ethernet.

Re:Come On

Damn it.

Three edits later, and it still makes no sense. I obviously meant to say "If not even the editor posting a stroy is interested".

[Goes to hide in a corner until he's able to type again.]

Hvae you seen taht rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy taht syas it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

http://www.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk/~mattd/Cmabrigde/ [cam.ac.uk]

Re:Come On

While that is true, I showed that to my GF who is from Hong Kong and knows English as a second language, cannot do it at all, but she can read perfectly and a bit faster than me

Re:Come On

it might be because the characters aren't normal for her, since english is my second language and it's not a problem at all, but I use the same set of letters.

Re:Come On

That's a lie and you know it. Nobody on slashdot has a girlfriend.

Re:Come On

*sigh*. mod parent up.

Re:Come On

Yes but the point is, no one on Slashdot HAS a girlfriend ...

Or ... err ... are you a girlfriend with a girlfriend on slashdot ... because that would be like ... whoa!

;-)

Re:Come On

You know firefox has a build in spell check these days, you might want to look into that.

Oh the irony...

Re:Where is FireWire going?

It's not a huge limitation for USB since devices just include a USB host controller as well. This allows, for example, a USB camera to print to a USB printer. The main win for FireWire is the lower protocol overhead (meaning that it gets closer to the rated wire speed) and the lower CPU usage.

Re:Where is the "standars" body

I think you are confusing USB with FireWire. FireWire is the IEEE 1394 family of standards (letter suffixes indicating later versions with higher speeds). USB is an interface developed by Intel to help them sell faster CPUs.