I know you love your USB devices and fancy flash drives, but wait until you see USB 3.0 aka USB Superspeed. This is the future standard for Universal Serial Bus data transfer. It will be ten times as fast as your USB 2.0 Hi-Speed and will be backwards compatible. This means you will be able to use all of your old USB devices, but you won’t get the full benefit of the Superspeed.

The biggest improvement has to be the speed. USB 2.0 transfers data at 480Mbps, which is not too bad. USB 3.0 will be transferring at 4.8GBps, ten times what it does now. Imagine being able to transfer a 27GB HD movie in a little over a minute instead of 15 minutes.

If you look at the new connectors, they have added five new lines parallel to the four original lines of 2.0. What this means is now instead of only being able to send data and receive data, you will be able to do both at the same time. This will make backing up data and syncing your devices very fast.

The cable is a little thicker but is so much more powerful than before. It has increased its power output from 100milliamps to 900milliamps. So now you will be able to charge your iPod, iPhone, and digital camera with no problems. It is also very power efficient by allowing non-active devices to stay idle and not waste energy while still plugged in.

Also coming soon is a USB 3.0 mini connector for cell phones and other small devices. All the same capabilities but in a smaller package, looks like a mini HDMI cable.

USB 3.0 is in its final stages and should be finished later this year. Development of USB 3.0 controllers and compatible products should be finished in the summer of 2009 and hit the shelf late 2009 or early 2010. You can find out more about the future of USB 3.0 at Maximum PC.

[via Maximum PC]

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