USB 3.0: the next evolution in speed

USB 3.0 is the next evolution over the now common USB 2.0 that we’ve all been using for years. While the USB 3.0 standard has been out for a while, it’s only recently that a variety of USB 3.0 devices has been available for purchase.

The biggest difference between USB 3.0 and 2.0 is the speed. The theoretical maximum is 4.8 Gb/second. While communication overhead and other issues mean that real-world performance will be much less, even at half that speed it is still close to ten times the speed of the real-world performance of USB 2.0. USB 3.0’s main benefits are:

• Higher transfer rates (up to 4.8 Gb/second).
• Increased maximum bus power and increased device current draw to better accommodate external devices with higher power demands.
• New power management features, to provide high power when needed but reduced power when possible.
• Full-duplex data transfers and support for new transfer types.

While the higher speed won’t make any difference for low-bandwidth peripherals such as mice and keyboards, it is a boon for high-volume data transfers with external hard drives, flash drives and high-definition video cameras. Those of us with large video or digital music collections have found backups to external drives to be slow, so USB 3.0 will greatly help this task.

Many new USB 3.0 external hard drives are now hitting the market, and several new laptops with USB 3.0 controllers will soon be available.

If you’re shopping for a new computer, it’s worth looking for USB 3.0 capability.