Super Talent announces first USB 3.0 flash drive

Even though Intel is expected to delay USB 3.0 support until sometime in 2011, motherboard makers have gone on their own including the new interconnect in select products via third party controllers. Naturally, compatible devices are starting to make their way onto the market as well, and now Super Talent has announced it plans to start shipping the world's first USB 3.0 flash drives as soon as next month.


Available in 32, 64 and 128GB capacities, the new RAIDDrive USB 3.0 series uses what Super Talent calls “multiple pairs of differential serial data lines technology” for optimal NAND flash performance. We can expect 200MB/s transfer rates in USB 3.0 mode and up to a whopping 320MB/s using a separate UAS Protocol driver. USB 2.0 and even 1.1 port compatibility has been preserved, albeit operating at their respective slower speeds.

To put this into perspective, filling up Super Talent's 64GB USB 3.0 flash drive would take a little over 3 minutes at top speed, whereas the same task would take nearly 30 minutes over a USB 2.0 port. There's still no word on pricing, but the company says we can expect retail availability in December from resellers worldwide.