The Universal Serial Bus standard has come a long way since its introduction in 1996. Backed by a consortium of companies led by Intel, Compaq and Microsoft, it offered some unheard-of features for its time, including the ability to connect peripherals without turning off the computer first and to draw power without a separate AC connection. The standard became popular with the arrival of version 1.1 in late 1998, allowing a maximum transfer rate of 12Mb/s, and as we can witness nowadays just about any device comes standard with 'Hi-Speed' USB 2.0 connectivity.
Showing posts with label USB. Show all posts
Showing posts with label USB. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
USB 3.0: What You Need To Know
The Universal Serial Bus standard has come a long way since its introduction in 1996. Backed by a consortium of companies led by Intel, Compaq and Microsoft, it offered some unheard-of features for its time, including the ability to connect peripherals without turning off the computer first and to draw power without a separate AC connection. The standard became popular with the arrival of version 1.1 in late 1998, allowing a maximum transfer rate of 12Mb/s, and as we can witness nowadays just about any device comes standard with 'Hi-Speed' USB 2.0 connectivity.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
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.
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.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Kingston, Paramount to deliver movies on flash drives
Kingston has signed an agreement with Paramount Digital Entertainment to deliver full-length motion picture films on flash devices. The movies will be stored on Kingston's SD and USB flash memory products, and will be available to consumers for a reasonable price -- all things considered. To boot, the companies are offering Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen on a 4GB Kingston DataTraveler USB drive for $29.99
Assuming the flash drive is reusable, that's not too bad of a deal for $30. That said, being crammed on a 4GB drive naturally means that the films will be in standard definition -- a deal breaker for many, I'm sure. Perhaps HD-friendly films will be offered on larger drives at a later date, but there are few details about the companies' future plans.
It seems to me that the people who would be most interested in this offer, probably already own a Blu-ray player. Would you pay $30 for a film stored on flash memory?
Assuming the flash drive is reusable, that's not too bad of a deal for $30. That said, being crammed on a 4GB drive naturally means that the films will be in standard definition -- a deal breaker for many, I'm sure. Perhaps HD-friendly films will be offered on larger drives at a later date, but there are few details about the companies' future plans.
It seems to me that the people who would be most interested in this offer, probably already own a Blu-ray player. Would you pay $30 for a film stored on flash memory?
Monday, October 26, 2009
Report: Intel Delaying Support for USB 3.0
Intel is pushing back support for USB 3.0 until 2011 claims a report.
Last week EE Times reported that Intel Corp. has decided to delay its support for USB 3.0 until 2011. According to a "top tier" PC manufacturer who chose to remain nameless, Intel's hesitation will put mainstream adoption of the new USB standard on hold for at least a year. Intel originally planned to sample chipsets supporting USB 3.0 in early 2010, but now those plans have changed; Intel's PC technology manager even confirmed the report.
EE Times thus contacted a spokesperson from Intel and asked about the delay. The contact said the he didn't know anything about the supposed delay, and declined to comment any further on the subject. Currently Intel is focused on supporting the company's first processor architecture to use an integrated memory controller, Nehalem, and is also working on transitioning to the 5 GHz PCI Express 2.0 spec.
Still, that won't stop some companies from jumping onto the SuperSpeed USB bandwagon, releasing high-end consumer systems and graphic workstations... but not without a high cost. "It's hard to commit to an emerging technology like this when the key silicon enablers (meaning Intel) are not making it a priority," the source said. "You get into a chicken-and-egg situation."
EE Time's source also added that Intel needs to consider the "compelling needs" for USB 3.0 now versus 18 months later.
Source : Tom's Hardware US
Last week EE Times reported that Intel Corp. has decided to delay its support for USB 3.0 until 2011. According to a "top tier" PC manufacturer who chose to remain nameless, Intel's hesitation will put mainstream adoption of the new USB standard on hold for at least a year. Intel originally planned to sample chipsets supporting USB 3.0 in early 2010, but now those plans have changed; Intel's PC technology manager even confirmed the report.EE Times thus contacted a spokesperson from Intel and asked about the delay. The contact said the he didn't know anything about the supposed delay, and declined to comment any further on the subject. Currently Intel is focused on supporting the company's first processor architecture to use an integrated memory controller, Nehalem, and is also working on transitioning to the 5 GHz PCI Express 2.0 spec.
Still, that won't stop some companies from jumping onto the SuperSpeed USB bandwagon, releasing high-end consumer systems and graphic workstations... but not without a high cost. "It's hard to commit to an emerging technology like this when the key silicon enablers (meaning Intel) are not making it a priority," the source said. "You get into a chicken-and-egg situation."
EE Time's source also added that Intel needs to consider the "compelling needs" for USB 3.0 now versus 18 months later.
Source : Tom's Hardware US
5 New Technologies That Will Change Everything
While sipping a cup of organically farmed, artisan-brewed tea, I tap on my gigabit-wireless-connected tablet, to pull up a 3D movie on the razor-thin HDTV hanging on the wall. A media server streams the film via a superspeedy USB connection to a wireless HD transmitter, which then beams it to the TV.
That actor--who was he? My augmented-reality contact lenses pick up the unique eye motion I make when I have a query, which I then enter on a virtual keyboard that appears in the space in front of me. Suddenly my field of vision is covered with a Web page showing a list of the actor's movies, along with some embedded video clips.
These technologies will come to life in the distant future, right? Future, yes. Distant, no.
Speed and content (much of it video) will be paired consistently across mobile, laptop, desktop, and home-entertainment systems. New ways of using video--including adding 3D depth or artificial visual overlays--will require more speed, storage, and computational power.
In our preview of technologies that are well on their way to reality, we look at the connective tissue of USB 3.0, 802.11ac, and 802.11ad for moving media--especially video--faster; at HTML5 for displaying video and content of all kinds consistently across all our devices; at augmented reality to see how the digital world will stretch into our physical reality by overlaying what we see with graphics and text; and at 3D TV, which will add image depth and believability to the experience of watching TV.
That actor--who was he? My augmented-reality contact lenses pick up the unique eye motion I make when I have a query, which I then enter on a virtual keyboard that appears in the space in front of me. Suddenly my field of vision is covered with a Web page showing a list of the actor's movies, along with some embedded video clips.
These technologies will come to life in the distant future, right? Future, yes. Distant, no.
Speed and content (much of it video) will be paired consistently across mobile, laptop, desktop, and home-entertainment systems. New ways of using video--including adding 3D depth or artificial visual overlays--will require more speed, storage, and computational power.
In our preview of technologies that are well on their way to reality, we look at the connective tissue of USB 3.0, 802.11ac, and 802.11ad for moving media--especially video--faster; at HTML5 for displaying video and content of all kinds consistently across all our devices; at augmented reality to see how the digital world will stretch into our physical reality by overlaying what we see with graphics and text; and at 3D TV, which will add image depth and believability to the experience of watching TV.
USB 3.0
The new USB 3.0 standard preserves backward compatibility by allowing older cables to plug into newer jacks; but newer cables like this one have extra pins that boost the data rate to 4.8 gbps.
Before you leave work, you need to back up your computer. You push a button, and 5 minutes later, while you're still packing up, your system has dumped 150GB of data onto an encrypted 512GB superfast solid-state drive, which you eject to take with you for offsite backup. On your way home, you stop at a movie kiosk outside a fast-food restaurant and buy a feature-length 3D video download on sale. You plug in your drive, the kiosk reads your credentials, and while you watch a 90-second preview of coming attractions, the 30GB video transfers onto your SSD. You pull out the drive and head home.
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