January 9, 2009 3:45 PM PST
Intel talks USB 3.0 at CES
LAS VEGAS--At the Consumer Electronics Show, Jeff Ravencraft of Intel talked about the status of SuperSpeed USB 3.0 and how fast it really is.
The most salient benefit of SuperSpeed USB is the 10X improvement in data transfer speed over current USB, version 2.0. So, for example, transferring a 25GB HD movie will take 70 seconds instead of almost 14 minutes.
Transfer of a 25GB HD movie:
- USB 1.0: 9.3 hours
- USB 2.0: 13.9 minutes
- USB 3.0: 70 seconds
In the video below, Ravencraft, who is president of the USB Implementers Forum, discusses the merits of SuperSpeed USB and the schedule for commercial rollout.
Brooke Crothers has been an editor at large at CNET News, an analyst at IDC Japan, and an editor at The Asian Wall Street Journal Weekly, among other endeavors, including co-manager of an after-school math-and-reading center. He writes for the CNET Blog Network and is not a current employee of CNET. Disclosure. 
I'm surprised that there's over a 9-hour time difference when transferring 25GB between USB 1.0 and 2.0...maybe I just forgot how slow the process was a few years ago, though.
- by herbertificus October 11, 2009 2:18 PM PDT
- Yes, the speed is terrific . . . but the standards commitee SCREWED UP AGAIN! They should have increased the voltage spec in the power wire from a gutless and semi-useless 5V to FireWire's 12V. There's only a gazillion things you can do with 12V that you can't do with 5V. There are all kinds of devices that can be powered by 12V but not 5V. Many devices have batteries that could be charged by 12V but can't be charged with just . . . 5 . . . gutless . . . limp-wristed . . . volts. And the higher voltage gives you more wattage: FireWire pumps out 15 watts of power, whereas USB 3 will pump out just less than 1/3 of that, 4.5 watts. I'm all in favor of paring the list of connection types from at least 7 (SCSI, Serial Attached SCSI, SATA, eSATA, PATA, FireWire, USB) down to a gloriously universal *ONE*, but that one really needs to have the two central, key features of utility, versatility and convenience: speed and electrical power (hot-swappability is a given).
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(6 Comments)THEY SCREWED UP.