Industry group forms around USB 3.0 spec

Brian Ambrozy 18 Sep, 2007 at 10:22pm ET Article published in Tech

Announced today at the Intel Developer Forum, a consortium consisting of HP, Microsoft Corporation, NEC Corporation, NXP Semiconductors and Texas Instruments Incorporated is gathering to hammer out the USB 3.0 specification.

Of course the press releases contain the usual blather about higher speeds (10x fastar!) lower power (batteries ++!), and intent (sync-and-go! blahdee blah blah!) but what intrigued me was this bit:

“USB 3.0 ports and cabling will be designed to enable backward compatibility as well as future-proofing for optical capabilities.”

Say whoo-wha?

I understand the USB 3 plugs on your Dell Laptop 2010 will still work with your grandma’s 128mb Jump Drive, but I’m curious (strictly from a nerd standpoint) on how they plan to include optical support in a little plug with four copper wires.

I just can’t wait to see it.

Comments

18 Sep 2007 ~ 10:59pm fatcat bout time i say
18 Sep 2007 ~ 11:04pm Thrax SPDIF cables are smaller than USB and are optical, I'm sure you could run tiny fiber optic channels.
19 Sep 2007 ~ 7:10am Zuntar Show me the light baby!!
20 Sep 2007 ~ 7:20pm Qeldroma Acually, with 1080p and emerging standards, they will need this and a commensurate update in PC technology overall- HDs, busses, memory, etc.

With the video job I've got going on- they could spring it on me right about ... now.
25 Sep 2007 ~ 9:10am GHoosdum Hmm... adding fiber optic to the spec just for future-proofing? Hello $20 cables!
25 Sep 2007 ~ 1:57pm Enverex Still cheaper than HDMI! *be de dum tish*
27 Sep 2007 ~ 2:57pm jhenry Yeah.... If you're foolish enough to buy the most expensive ones out there.
27 Sep 2007 ~ 4:46pm Sledgehammer70

jhenry wrote:

Yeah.... If you're foolish enough to buy the most expensive ones out there.

QFTT