USB 3 in 2008, 10 Times as Fast 381
psychicsword writes "Intel and others plan to release a new version of the ubiquitous Universal Serial Bus technology in the first half of 2008, a revamp the chipmaker said will make data transfer rates more than 10 times as fast by adding fiber-optic links alongside the traditional copper wires." "The current USB 2.0 version has a top data-transfer rate of 480 megabits per second, so a tenfold increase would be 4.8 gigabits per second." This should make USB hard drives easier and faster to use."
Cable? (Score:1, Insightful)
Seems to me that neither the optical cable (nor the ports) will be compatible with USB 2.
FP: And sometime in 2015... (Score:2, Insightful)
Size? (Score:3, Insightful)
Bottleneck? (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, but.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Cable? (Score:2, Insightful)
Plug Shape (Score:5, Insightful)
While I appreciate USB's capability for backwards computability, I would much rather have a plug shaped in such a way that I didn't have to flip it over every time I try to plug it in. I don't know about you guys but this is one of the most annoying aspects of using my computer, and I run Windows!
This would also be a great time to make a universal "other side" of the cable, rather than having a different plug for every single USB device. I have a mini plug for my camera, a big square one for my printer, a 2.5 mm jack to charge my MP3 player, etc. All these cables make a mess. If all my devices could share one cable, I'd be much happier.
Re:Yeah, but.. (Score:5, Insightful)
In such an event... (Score:3, Insightful)
More half assed implementations. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Bottleneck? (Score:5, Insightful)
Which doesn't give me high hopes for USB3. High-speed links are all good and well, but if they keep including cheap-ass controllers, what's the point?
New cables (expensive?) (Score:2, Insightful)
I assume that the cables will be much more expensive, as well, because of the fiber component. I can get a regular cable for about $3 now, does anyone know how much the new cables are likely to cost?
Re:Plug Shape (Score:3, Insightful)
Screw bandwidth... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Plug Shape (SCSI was worse) (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Bottleneck? (Score:5, Insightful)
Firewire has both synchronous and asynchronous modes. In async mode, a bunch of packets can be transmitted before any acknowledgment back is required. That's bad if the cables is flakey, since it will result in a lot of retransmits, but bad firewire cables are the exception, not the rule. So async is almost always way more efficient than synch. I'm pretty certain that you are using the async mode for talking to your disk.
Re:Plug Shape (Score:3, Insightful)
Seriously, the connector should have double the number of pins as it needs, and they should be symmetrical. That would also increase reliability, because if the cable didn't work one way because of a bad pin, just flip it over until you can buy a new cable.
Re:Great. (Score:5, Insightful)
No Flash is slow to write , very fast to read. Hence Windows use of it for "ReadyBoost" caching. There is extremely low latency just not enough bandwidth to sustain high levels of I/O.
On the other hand , by introducing fiber into the link doesn't that take away the greatest part of usb ? being able to just fold up the cable and stuff it in your pocket along with a small hard drive ? I know I use it for restoring machines after catastrophic failures (yeah windows) and some times I don't go right back to my desk with the cable and drive and have to toss it in my pocket. I can't do that with fiber, it would fracture.
Re:Plug Shape (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't think the idea is to have the cable flippable, but instead to have some indication in the shape of which way around it goes. Firewire connects have a rounded end and a squared off one, for example.
Re:Great. (Score:5, Insightful)
What's worse is.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Best usb port design? 5 year old Dells which have the usb ports at the front bottom with the ports ANGLED UPWARDS. It's lotsa fun trying to fit a thumb drive into those ports. I'd love to punch the guy in the face who came up with that design.
Re:speed over fiber vs speed of electrons over cop (Score:3, Insightful)
But the faster you push data on copper the more vulnerable to distortion and corruption the data becomes. Wires act like antennas and absorb em radiation from the computer and other sources. This is why gigabit ethernet has a very short distance the cable can cover vs 100mbps cables.
Light doesn't suffer from this problem and thus can handle faster data.
Re:Plug Shape (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Great. (Score:1, Insightful)
One of my biggest gripes with USB (besides all the technical blunders) is that there's no "the cable". My iPod has a USB-to-iPod cable. My camera has a USB-to-camera cable. My Visor (back when I used it) had a USB-to-Visor cable.
WTF, guys? The point of a standard cable is so I only need to carry one fucking cable.
Re:Great. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Honest Question (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:I'm more concerned with latency. (Score:3, Insightful)