NEC increases USB 3.0 speeds by 3 to 16Gb/s

[pparks1]

Saw this on The Register this morning.

NEC works out how to triple USB 3.0 speed ? Register Hardware

 

[IggyAZ]

When it starts arriving on all MB's will be a great day. The transfer speed is fantastic compared to USBII.
Can you imagion the extrnal HD transfer speed compared to thte present USBII.
WOW!

 

[pparks1]

When it starts arriving on all MB's will be a great day. The transfer speed is fantastic compared to USBII.
Can you imagion the extrnal HD transfer speed compared to thte present USBII.
WOW!

Well, the current USB speeds are around 30-40MB/s. And most mechanical hard drives top out around 80-90MB/s. So, USB3 is only going to effectively double our current speeds since we are limited by the hard drives themselves. So, I'm not that terribly excited about USB3 yet.

 

[Zathras]

I don't know jack about the USB interface; could it ever get fast enough so that you could use USB to host devices like peformance-boosting CPUs or coprocessors, or have USB as a way to add a RAM disk that performs as well as main memory, or even something like a USB-based video card that can perform like an internal card?

 

[Nemix]

Great news. Given the maximum transfer USB 2.0 speeds does now, that's a good 1.5mb/sec real world transfer speeds for USB 3.0.

 

[XboxOmac]

Awesome! We have faster transfer rates now.

Is a Sandisk Cruzer a USB 2.0, though? It's the U3 version.

 

[whs]

That sounds good but we'll need the disks to feed at that speed. And btw, eSata does the same.

 

[JonM33]

When it starts arriving on all MB's will be a great day. The transfer speed is fantastic compared to USBII.
Can you imagion the extrnal HD transfer speed compared to thte present USBII.
WOW!

Well, the current USB speeds are around 30-40MB/s. And most mechanical hard drives top out around 80-90MB/s. So, USB3 is only going to effectively double our current speeds since we are limited by the hard drives themselves. So, I'm not that terribly excited about USB3 yet.

Why? You can have internal transfer speeds on an external device. That's nothing but good news.

 

[whs]

When it starts arriving on all MB's will be a great day. The transfer speed is fantastic compared to USBII.
Can you imagion the extrnal HD transfer speed compared to thte present USBII.
WOW!

Well, the current USB speeds are around 30-40MB/s. And most mechanical hard drives top out around 80-90MB/s. So, USB3 is only going to effectively double our current speeds since we are limited by the hard drives themselves. So, I'm not that terribly excited about USB3 yet.

Why? You can have internal transfer speeds on an external device. That's nothing but good news.

Yeah, but you have to have a device that can make use of all that good speed. That's why eSata was never very popular. The disks did not transfer any faster because the channel is fast.

 

[JonM33]

Yeah, but you have to have a device that can make use of all that good speed. That's why eSata was never very popular. The disks did not transfer any faster because the channel is fast.

eSATA was never popular because it needs a proprietary connection, in some cases needed ACHI to be enabled in the BIOS for hot-swap capability, has a very limited cable length and was overall a pain in the rear. It had nothing to do with performance.

USB 3.0 is completely backwards compatible with current USB 2.0 ports and on USB 3.0 offers nearly identical internal transfer rates. It's the same as USB 2.0's positives and none of the negatives (slow transfer rate, all devices are on a hub and share bandwidth, etc).

 

[A320]

Yeah, but you have to have a device that can make use of all that good speed. That's why eSata was never very popular. The disks did not transfer any faster because the channel is fast.

eSATA was never popular because it needs a proprietary connection, in some cases needed ACHI to be enabled in the BIOS for hot-swap capability, has a very limited cable length and was overall a pain in the rear. It had nothing to do with performance.

USB 3.0 is completely backwards compatible with current USB 2.0 ports and on USB 3.0 offers nearly identical internal transfer rates. It's the same as USB 2.0's positives and none of the negatives (slow transfer rate, all devices are on a hub and share bandwidth, etc).

Not disagreeing with you but merely interested in sparking some constructive debate. I am curious as to why in your opinions eSata will be less desirable than USB3.0?

Obviously I may be a bit impartial since I use an eSata HD for my backing up and transferring around. I agree with what you said about AHCI being a requirement but don't most modern day boards have AHCI available now?

I can understand that using USB3.0 with perhaps an SSD would show an advantage since SSD can accomdate the higher speeds but I would have to assume now that external hard drives will have to be redesigned now to provide the greater bandwith USB3.0 can accomodate. What I mean by this, in my case for example, my external HD is simply a regular 3.5" internal 1TB WD 'Green' drive, coupled with a 'Rosewill' enclosure that provides both eSata and USB2.0 connections out. If you intend on building your own external HD's in the future still utilizing a regular SATAII HD like I have in this case, even if the enclosure's are designed with USB3.0 out, you won't get any faster transfer speeds than an eSata if you consider that the internal drive is still just a SATAII drive. Are you following or have I minced everything up yet?!

Of course as time goes on, and prices continue to drop sharply like they always do with computer technology, I have a feeling we will be buying 500GB SSD's for under $200 and placing those in an enclosure to create an external HD.

 

[JonM33]

Not disagreeing with you but merely interested in sparking some constructive debate. I am curious as to why in your opinions eSata will be less desirable than USB3.0?

Obviously I may be a bit impartial since I use an eSata HD for my backing up and transferring around. I agree with what you said about AHCI being a requirement but don't most modern day boards have AHCI available now?

No. I'd say that most motherboards don't even have eSATA. I can dig out a big list of P55 motherboards that don't even have it. My Abit IP35-E (P35) doesn't even have ACHI in the BIOS. There are very few OEM systems (Dell, HP) that actually have eSATA too.

I can understand that using USB3.0 with perhaps an SSD would show an advantage since SSD can accomdate the higher speeds but I would have to assume now that external hard drives will have to be redesigned now to provide the greater bandwith USB3.0 can accomodate. What I mean by this, in my case for example, my external HD is simply a regular 3.5" internal 1TB WD 'Green' drive, coupled with a 'Rosewill' enclosure that provides both eSata and USB2.0 connections out. If you intend on building your own external HD's in the future still utilizing a regular SATAII HD like I have in this case, even if the enclosure's are designed with USB3.0 out, you won't get any faster transfer speeds than an eSata if you consider that the internal drive is still just a SATAII drive. Are you following or have I minced everything up yet?!

No, I have no idea what you are trying to claim. I am not saying that USB 3.0 will be faster than eSATA. I am saying that it is more compatible, offers hot-swap natively via the interface (regardless of the motherboard) and has a better future than eSATA.