USB 3.0, Serial ATA 3.0!

[Malevolence 6]

NEC Rolls-out First USB 3.0 Add-on Cards

NEC unveiled the first add-on cards based on its recently announced µPD720200 USB 3.0 host controller. This is the typical route taken by a company to propagate the standard in an environment where motherboard vendors and chipset makers haven't yet embraced it. For the desktop segment, the reference-design PCI-Express x1 add-on card provides two SuperSpeed USB 3.0 ports that are backwards-compatible with USB 2.0, 1.1, and 1.0. NEC also released an add-on card for notebooks, in the ExpressCard-34 form-factor based on the same controller, offering the same two ports. With these reference designs, NEC plans to propagate add-on card vendors to design their own cards based on the NEC µPD720200 controller. Typically, these cards should be priced around the $15~20 mark. A successor to USB 2.0, USB 3.0 offers 10-times the bandwidth (4.8 Gbps), although it will take a while for devices to use all that bandwidth, let alone support the standard. Perhaps this is why the company seems to find PCI-Express x1 sufficient as its system interface.

 

 

Edited May 28, 2009 by Malevolence

[TheBlackOut 7]

Yea, I'll be waiting a bit before getting one... Probably by the time I get a new motherboard that supports it natively.

 

USB3 seems to beat eSATA in bandwidth too, interesting.

[Luk3us 63]

I'll wait till next year when I build a new comp.

[Fiesta 0]

Yea, I'll be waiting a bit before getting one... Probably by the time I get a new motherboard that supports it natively.

 

USB3 seems to beat eSATA in bandwidth too, interesting.

 

The next generation of SATA will achieve 6Gbps and (I think) support power-over-eSATA, so USB 3.0 can eat it. :lol:

[Sonic 296]

Are there any devices on the market that take advantage of USB 3.0.

 

The way I understand it is that if I have a USB 2.0 hard drive and plug into a USB 3.0 port it will only operate at speeds determined by USB 2.0.

[Malevolence 6]

The way I understand it is that if I have a USB 2.0 hard drive and plug into a USB 3.0 port it will only operate at speeds determined by USB 2.0.

 

Yup, at least one good thing about the new USB 3.0 is that its still compatible with older USB 2.0 stuffs.

 

Damn it, I am pretty much uncertain that whether I should postponed getting a new rig at a much later date, preferably to the point where new motherboards and possibly casings support the new USB 3.0 internally.

[BioBen 3]

I think I'll wait till there is a good amount of stuff that fully utilizes its capability before getting it, and by then it'll be integrated.

[Malevolence 6]

Seems like a several of CNCNZ members decide to get a new rig in 2010, actually I was planning on getting one next month... I wasn't sure.

[Doctor Destiny 41]

Yup, at least one good thing about the new USB 3.0 is that its still compatible with older USB 2.0 stuffs.

2.0 did 1.1... and still does. Pretty sure 3 will do the same...

[TheBlackOut 7]

The next generation of SATA will achieve 6Gbps and (I think) support power-over-eSATA, so USB 3.0 can eat it. :lol:

Oh? Very nice. Is the next gen of SATA out or is it still be testing and developed?

 

2.0 did 1.1... and still does. Pretty sure 3 will do the same...

It would have to if it wants to survive in the market in my opinion. Can't obsolete all those USB 1.1 and 2.0 devices quite yet.

[Fiesta 0]

Oh? Very nice. Is the next gen of SATA out or is it still be testing and developed?

 

Still under development. However, Intel's next high-end chipset will feature a controller capable of handling it, so it shouldn't be more than 6-8 months before you see it in use.

 

I really hate to buzz-kill the whole USB hype, but USB has never been suitable for external storage. It was designed for peripherals, printers, scanners, etc., and thus is suited for such. Firewire, both 400 and 800, has always been faster than USB 2.0 because it was designed (by Apple of all people) explicitly for transferring enormous amounts of data from external storage systems. A preliminary test had USB 3.0 running somewhere between 2.2 and 2.5Gbps, half its rating, which makes Firewire 3200 (also still under development) appealing to those that don't want to hog up SATA ports for external conversion.

Edited May 22, 2009 by Fiesta

[Malevolence 6]

Any idea when's the next Serial ATA ports will be release?

[Fiesta 0]

The release of devices using the standard was scheduled for this quarter, but I haven't seen anything beyond that. Maybe next quarter SATA 6.0Gbps controllers will show up.

[Malevolence 6]

Thanks, will keep a look up on that.

 

Anyways, can't wait for new mobos with USB 3.0 intergrated internally.

[Fiesta 0]

The same chipset that will support SATA 6.0Gbps will also support USB 3.0, so it'll be a nice double-whammy.

[VampireA05 0]

this make my 16Gb thumb drive looks obsolete....

[Malevolence 6]

this make my 16Gb thumb drive looks obsolete....

 

not to mention my 1TB ext HD and other ext HD.

 

I was planning to get another terabyte of ext HD in a few months time, seeing that USB3 will be coming soon I decide to wait till Western Digital creates one great ext HD that supports USB3.

[TheBlackOut 7]

The same chipset that will support SATA 6.0Gbps will also support USB 3.0, so it'll be a nice double-whammy.

Very cool to know. Just would be nice if SSDs dropped in price now...

 

 

I was planning to get another terabyte of ext HD in a few months time, seeing that USB3 will be coming soon I decide to wait till Western Digital creates one great ext HD that supports USB3.

Why go USB3 when you can go eSATA?

[Malevolence 6]

The next generation of SATA will achieve 6Gbps and (I think) support power-over-eSATA, so USB 3.0 can eat it. :lol:

 

Fiesta is right, here's major updates on Serial ATA 3.0 too!

 

SATA 3.0 Released Paving The Way To 6Gb/sec SATA Devices

Author: Wesley Roberts Category: Hardware 8 hours ago

 

The Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO) has just released the new Serial ATA Revision 3.0 specification. With this new 3.0 specification, the path has been paved to enable future devices to transfer up to 6Gb/sec as well has provide enhancements to support multimedia applications.

 

Like other SATA specifications, the 3.0 specification is backward compatible with earlier SATA products and devices. This makes it easy for motherboard manufactures to go ahead and upgrade to the new specification without having to worry about its customers legacy SATA devices. This should make adoption to the new specification fast, like previous adoptions to SATA 2.0 (or 3Gb/sec) technology.

 

Serial ATA Revision 3.0 Specification Features

 

* A new Native Command Queuing (NCQ) streaming command to enable isochronous data transfers for bandwidth-hungry audio and video applications

* An NCQ Management feature that helps optimize performance by enabling host processing and management of outstanding NCQ commands

* Improved power management capabilities

* A small Low Insertion Force (LIF) connector for more compact 1.8-inch storage devices

* A connector designed to accommodate 7mm optical disk drives for thinner and lighter notebooks

* Alignment with the INCITS ATA8-ACS standard

 

 

SATA is one of the most popular data transfer technologies. SATA was first introduced in 2001 and since then over 1.1 billion SATA hard drives have been shipped. SATA technology is housed on 98 percent of internal hard drive shipments today.

 

"The SATA interface has developed into the de facto standard HDD interface in computing applications," said John Rydning, IDC's research director for hard disk drives. "The new SATA Revision 3.0 specification builds upon the current market success of SATA, and will help to solidify SATA as the predominant storage device interface technology for the foreseeable future."

 

SATA-IO will have a booth setup at Computex Taipei on June 2-6th if you want to check out the new specification in action just swing by booth #H810 to see the latest SATA3 6Gb/s products. Seagate and AMD has already shown off 6Gb/sec devices this past March.

 

http://techfragments.com/news/823/Hardware...TA_Devices.html

 

 

I'm adding on SATA 3.0 into this topic as well.

[Malevolence 6]

PCs with USB 3.0 to be Available Before 2010

 

The PC world is quickly preparing for USB 3.0

 

News reports from Asia indicate PCs with USB 3.0 will be shipping to consumers before the end of 2009.

 

USB 3.0, with speeds 10 times faster than USB 2.0, will offer transfer speeds of up to 5 gigabits of data per second. Manufacturers are expected to introduce a new generation of USB flash drives, external hard drives, and other devices that will make use of the significantly faster transfer speeds.

 

NEC Electronics is expected to lead the pack among companies adopting USB 3.0, with the company recently becoming the first to introduce a USB 3.0 controller. The company began shipping host controller samples last month, and in September will begin manufacturing an expected one million units per month.

 

In 2007, Intel unveiled USB 3.0 during its Intel Developer Forum (IDF) conference, but was accused by AMD and NVIDIA of keeping the open host controller specifications a secret to create an unfair advantage against competitors. Intel later released the open host controller specifications in November 2007, with companies expected about the increased speed of the technology.

 

There has been some talk about whether or not the PC industry will be ready for USB 3.0. During the SuperSpeed USB Developers Conference, held two months ago in May, manufacturers outlined their aspirations to utilize the superior USB 3.0 -- devices also were shown to be faster than eSATA, which offers 3Gbits/s transfer speed.

 

NEC anticipates 140 million PCs will ship in 2011 utilizing USB 3.0, with that number expected to climb up to 340 million in 2012. Microsoft Windows 7, which launches in October, will not support the standard at launch, but will add in support later.

 

Both home users and businesses will benefit by using the faster technology, with large-scale data backup becoming much faster thanks to the 5Gbit/s transfer speeds. Expect external HDDs with increased storage capacity from Western Digital, Seagate, Iomega, and other companies specializing in storage.

 

http://www.dailytech.com/PCs+with+USB+30+t...rticle15582.htm

[Fiesta 0]

Too bad normal hard drives can't take advantage of even USB 3.0, much less Firewire 3200 or SATA 6.0Gbps. Externally-configured SSDs in large capacities will LOVE these new standards, though.

 

Edit; Asus has a new board coming out with BOTH technologies the topic header shows.

 

http://www.techpowerup.com/99256/ASUS_P6X5...d_SATA_III.html

Edited July 15, 2009 by Fiesta

[Mighty BOB! 5]

Too bad PCI 3.0 got delayed.

[Malevolence 6]

Meh. The waiting just never stops. PCI 3.0 (8 GT/s) delayed, SATA 3.0 (6.0 Gbit/s) delayed as they are having problems implementing on motherboards due to some chip problem, and USB 3.0 (5.0 Gbit/s) has yet to be implemented onto motherboards yet.

 

I will go ahead building a rig with motherboards holding current PCI 2.0, SATA 2 and USB 2. As of yet there are no graphics cards are capable of utilizing the full capacities of PCI-E 2 slots, let alone this new PCI 3, same goes for SATA 2 (unless you do have that much money for extreme SSD setups). USB 3.0 items (peripherals etc.) wont be out until a few years down the road. So, I'm not waiting.

[Fiesta 0]

Actually Asus was going to release a P55 board with USB 3.0 but pulled the launch entirely for what seems to be no apparent reason.

 

SATA 6Gbps was delayed because Marvell (who was first on the market with a controller) was having problems with their controller. If Via or Texas Instruments belts out a cozy little controller of their own, we'll see a side-by-side launch of SATA 6Gbps and P55/P57.

Edited August 7, 2009 by Fiesta

[Malevolence 6]

Meh. I'll just get one of those USB3.0 things on a later date and plug it onto a PCI slot, if I need USB3.0.

Edited August 8, 2009 by Malevolence