USB 3 in 2008, 10 Times as Fast

psychicsword writes "Intel and others plan to release a new version of the ubiquitous Universal Serial Bus technology in the first half of 2008, a revamp the chipmaker said will make data transfer rates more than 10 times as fast by adding fiber-optic links alongside the traditional copper wires." "The current USB 2.0 version has a top data-transfer rate of 480 megabits per second, so a tenfold increase would be 4.8 gigabits per second." This should make USB hard drives easier and faster to use."

Comments

Not in practice.

[pla]

This should make USB hard drives easier and faster to use.

Faster, yes. Easier?

Perhaps I count as an extremely unlucky outlier in my experiences with USB in general, but I have found it one of the buggiest PC interfaces ever. And I include VL graphics cards in that list.

XP and a modern machine finally seem capable of handling simple things like USB1 keyboards and mice properly. Printers, still asking for a reservation at the sanitarium. Cameras, not too bad, but they only need to work for five minutes at a time.

But HDDs... I've dealt with four different models on three different PCs running four different OSs (yes, four OSs on three PCs - I actually reinstalled three different Linux distros, using 2.2, 2.4, and 2.6 kernels, just to recover data I had trusted to an external USB HDD). And they all have exactly the same problem - They randomly drop offline just when you start hitting them the hardest.

Under XP, they appear and dissapear on a whim. Some days you can't even get them to stay connected long enough to format them, while others (rarely) you might have it work all day long.

Under Linux, I've had what you could technically call a better experience - As long as I limit it to UHCI (ie, slow old 12mbit USB1.1), it works great, rock solid. Toss in the EHCI driver to allow a decent transfer rate, and it zips along nicely - For about 45 seconds, after which it decides to offline itself until a reboot (even removing and reinserting the module doesn't let you bring it back up).



So... Forgive my skepticism, but the thought of a newer-faster-buggier-than-ever version of USB just doesn't get me all that excited. I think I'd use the phrase "fills me with dread".