Home New USB 3.0 spec to hit 10 Gbps data rate
News

New USB 3.0 spec to hit 10 Gbps data rate

Cyril Kowaliski
Disclosure
Disclosure
In our content, we occasionally include affiliate links. Should you click on these links, we may earn a commission, though this incurs no additional cost to you. Your use of this website signifies your acceptance of our terms and conditions as well as our privacy policy.

Eat your heart out, Thunderbolt. The USB 3.0 Promoter Group has announced a "supplement" to the USB 3.0 specification that will raise data rates to 10 Gbps, up from the current maximum of 5 Gbps. 10 Gbps matches the speed of a single Thunderbolt channel, although only in one direction; Thunderbolt offers 10 Gbps of bidirectional bandwidth per channel. With two channels per port, aggregate bandwidth adds up to 40 Gbps.

The new, higher USB data rate will be achieved through "enhanced" cables and connectors. Those cables and connectors will, of course, be compatible with USB 3.0 and 2.0 devices. I’m not seeing many other technical details in the official announcement or the linked documentation—just something about the updated standard using "improved data encoding" to boost both throughput and power efficiency.

In any case, the USB 3.0 Promoter Group says the quicker standard is "targeted for industry review" this quarter and should be completed by the middle of 2013. The first products will presumably show up some time after that. Here’s hoping the standard gets its own version number—maybe, say, USB 3.1—to prevent things from getting confusing.

This speed boost might throw a damper on Thunderbolt’s already lukewarm adoption. Thunderbolt is still quicker, however, and it has other redeeming qualities, including support for fiber-optic cables and the fact that it combines PCI Express and DisplayPort signals. For example, with just one Thunderbolt data cable connecting it to the host system, Apple’s Thunderbolt Display delivers a 2560×1440 image in addition to USB 2.0, FireWire 800, and Gigabit Ethernet connectivity.

Latest News

Apple Might Join Hands with Google or OpenAI for Their AI Tech
News

Apple Is Reportedly Planning to Join Hands with Google or OpenAI to License Their AI Tools

YouTube Launches New Tool To Help Label AI-generated Content
News

YouTube Launches a New Tool to Help Creators Label AI-Generated Content

YouTube released a tool that will make creators clearly label the parts of their content that are generated by AI. The initiative was first launched in November in an attempt...

Ripple Dumps 240 Million XRP Tokens Amid 17% Price Decline
Crypto News

Ripple Dumps 240 Million XRP Tokens Amid 17% Price Decline

Popular crypto payment platform Ripple has released 240 million XRP tokens in its latest escrow unlock for March. This comes at a time when XRP’s price has declined significantly. Data from...

Crypto Expert Draws A Links Between Shiba Inu And Ethereum
Crypto News

Crypto Expert Draws Link Between Shiba Inu And Ethereum

The Lucrative FTX Bankruptcy Trade and Ongoing Legal Battle
Crypto News

The Lucrative FTX Bankruptcy Trade and Ongoing Legal Battle

Bitcoin (BTC) Price Set to Enter “Danger Zone” – Time to Back-Off or Bag More Coins?
Crypto News

Bitcoin (BTC) Price Set to Enter “Danger Zone” – Time to Back-Off or Bag More Coins?

SNB to Kick Off Rate Cut Cycle Sooner Than Expected
News

SNB to Kick-Start Rate Cut Cycle Sooner Than Expected