The Universal Serial Bus (also known as USB) is the most widely used interface for computer communication.
It has fast speed, wide support and it's easy to use.
I think that everyone loves USB.
Lately a new standard from the range has arrived.
It's the 3d generation of the popular interface.
So what's the differences.
Does it gives us more than just higher speed rates? Let's find out.
First let's refresh on what the USB 2.
0 offers in brief.
The USB 2.
0 interface is giving us a speed that has a limit of 480 Mb per second or around 57MB per second.
The therm according to that speed is HighSpeed USB.
That's hardly reachable because of various limitations such as pc performance, 32 bit vs 64 bit operating system being in use (64 bit is much faster) or the device itself being connected (many of the devices don't even have a chance of getting these speeds).
Comparing that to the older USB 1.
1 standard it's increase by 48 times!! which is remarkable.
In reality however these speeds are hardly reached and the fastest one that I have witnessed is around 26MB/s with a nice Apple Laptop with Windows 7 64 bit Ultimate.
The maximum cable length for a USB 2.
0 cable is only 5 m according to the standard which is a lot comparing it to the older series 3 m.
However we can use several USB hubs attached to one another to expand that to 30 m maximum or 5 hubs max.
USB 2.
0 has the ability to power certain low voltage devices.
It delivers up to 6 A at either 5 V, 12 V, or 24 V which is more than enough for your mini camera, mouse or keyboard.
So what about the new generation? Let's get in details of the USB 3.
0 specifications.
USB 3.
0 stands for SuperSpeed.
And indeed the speed is just super - a whopping 3.
2 Gigabits per second or 400 MB/s!!! SuperSpeed establishes a communications pipe between the host and each device, in a host-directed protocol.
In contrast to that, HighSpeed usb 2.
0 broadcasts packet traffic to all devices.
The new power management features are support of idle, sleep and suspend states and function-level power management.
The cable length for USB 3.
0 SuperSpeed is the same as HighSpeed and the 5 m maximum length is present here also.
Although everyone would love to have the new standard on their laptop or work pc, there aren't many devices currently supporting that.
Windows drivers are currently in development, however there are some that are ready and can be downloaded from the Windows support website.
As the technology evolves each day I'm not going to be surprised if the newest laptop models or personal computers already ship with the drivers.
Please check availability before purchase! According to INTEL, they are not going to officially support the SuperSpeed standard until 2011 which may slow down mainstream appearance.
AMD also don't have any signs of supporting it officially in 2010.
However this doesn't mean that no models supporting it will appear in the near future because there are already many laptops supporting that, and the 2011 is very close.
So if you plan on buying your kid a new laptop for xmas eve, make sure it has USB 3.
0 support!:)
It has fast speed, wide support and it's easy to use.
I think that everyone loves USB.
Lately a new standard from the range has arrived.
It's the 3d generation of the popular interface.
So what's the differences.
Does it gives us more than just higher speed rates? Let's find out.
First let's refresh on what the USB 2.
0 offers in brief.
The USB 2.
0 interface is giving us a speed that has a limit of 480 Mb per second or around 57MB per second.
The therm according to that speed is HighSpeed USB.
That's hardly reachable because of various limitations such as pc performance, 32 bit vs 64 bit operating system being in use (64 bit is much faster) or the device itself being connected (many of the devices don't even have a chance of getting these speeds).
Comparing that to the older USB 1.
1 standard it's increase by 48 times!! which is remarkable.
In reality however these speeds are hardly reached and the fastest one that I have witnessed is around 26MB/s with a nice Apple Laptop with Windows 7 64 bit Ultimate.
The maximum cable length for a USB 2.
0 cable is only 5 m according to the standard which is a lot comparing it to the older series 3 m.
However we can use several USB hubs attached to one another to expand that to 30 m maximum or 5 hubs max.
USB 2.
0 has the ability to power certain low voltage devices.
It delivers up to 6 A at either 5 V, 12 V, or 24 V which is more than enough for your mini camera, mouse or keyboard.
So what about the new generation? Let's get in details of the USB 3.
0 specifications.
USB 3.
0 stands for SuperSpeed.
And indeed the speed is just super - a whopping 3.
2 Gigabits per second or 400 MB/s!!! SuperSpeed establishes a communications pipe between the host and each device, in a host-directed protocol.
In contrast to that, HighSpeed usb 2.
0 broadcasts packet traffic to all devices.
The new power management features are support of idle, sleep and suspend states and function-level power management.
The cable length for USB 3.
0 SuperSpeed is the same as HighSpeed and the 5 m maximum length is present here also.
Although everyone would love to have the new standard on their laptop or work pc, there aren't many devices currently supporting that.
Windows drivers are currently in development, however there are some that are ready and can be downloaded from the Windows support website.
As the technology evolves each day I'm not going to be surprised if the newest laptop models or personal computers already ship with the drivers.
Please check availability before purchase! According to INTEL, they are not going to officially support the SuperSpeed standard until 2011 which may slow down mainstream appearance.
AMD also don't have any signs of supporting it officially in 2010.
However this doesn't mean that no models supporting it will appear in the near future because there are already many laptops supporting that, and the 2011 is very close.
So if you plan on buying your kid a new laptop for xmas eve, make sure it has USB 3.
0 support!:)
Source...