USB 3.0's New Jacks and Sockets

The Register has a brief look posted (with photos and diagrams) of "USB 3.0, the upcoming version of the universal add-on standard re-engineered for the HD era, made a small appearance at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES)." The posting explains that USB 3.0 "wasn't demonstrated in operation, but we did get to see what the new connectors look like." How does it handle backward compatibility? The extra pins needed for USB 3.0 "are placed behind the USB 1.1/2.0 ones. USB 3.0 connectors and receptacles will be deeper than the current ones."

Comments

Just goes to show...

[Anonymous Coward]

... that longer male connectors are better.

Re:Just goes to show...

[4D6963]

longer male connectors are better.

Nooo it's not how long they are but what they do. Besides if female connectors like long male connectors bigger that's because they themselves are *too* deep. A short male connector fits a "shallow" female connector as nicely as a long male connector fits a deep female connector.

So girls, quit complaining and laughing and get it worked out! Oh wait, oops..

Naming

[teslatug]

So they're going with a 3.0 instead of some crazy More Full Speed (TM) name this time?

Still using rectangular connectors, I see.

[croddy]

p>Whatever they come up with, in the end, I have only one wish for the USB3 hardware developers: that they be made to plug 1000 of them in upside down in the dark.

Re:Probably not

[RobFlynn]

Super Mega Ultra USB Supreme Ranger... CONNECT!

more pins: yuck

[nguy]

This seems like a step backwards. Four pins and shielding was a good number; more makes the cables big and requires more connections on the circuit board.

Oh it'll go at full capacity

[SuperKendall]

You'll just need to dedicate six of your eight cores in the 3GHz Intel chip for the process overhead.

Re:Probably not

[phallstrom]

Ludicrous speed!

There's really no other option...

I can't wait for this to take off

[CagedKiller360]

This will be great for the people with portable music players, obviously because of the lightning speed. If the USB2 can do 480Mbps and syncing 2 hours of videos to my iPod takes just over minute then I'd really like to see it transfer so much data in about 7 seconds, maybe?

Re:Probably not

[sconeu]

But then they'd have to make all the connectors plaid.

nice reference

[BitterAndDrunk]

Comedy isn't pretty.

Re:One suggestion

[ffflala]

That's not true! USB 2.0 requires gold-plated contacts for maximum bus fidelity. Monster makes a good USB 2.0 cable, and it goes for a steal at $79.99 per cable.

If you put the 2.0 cables in the freezer to align the molecules before you use them you get even better bus response. All of my devices have this warmer, more human feel when I'm using properly-designed cables.

Re:One suggestion

[Feanturi]

They use the same connectors, but USB 2.0-rated cables are better shielded. A cable made when USB 1.1 was all there was did not have to be capable of carrying as much data. USB 2.0 is 40 times faster than "full speed" USB 1.1, so if you want to ensure you're getting the most out of your device, you want a higher grade of cable.

Re:Probably not

[Anonymous Coward]

Super Mega Ultra USB Supreme Ranger... CONNECT!

Private: Captain EHCI, unknown device in range!
Captain: Run level 9 enumeration protocol, stat!
Private: Error -123: device is not accepting our address!
Captain: Arm the compatibility layer and reset the host controller!
Private: Device is a Super Mega Ultra class AHCI master!
Captain: Increase port voltage to 480V and reenumerate!
*ZZAP*
Private: Reporting overcurrent condition on port 5, and Super Mega Ultra device running in low-speed compatibility mode!
Captain: Roger that, commence loading driver modules.

Next version will be...

[simtel]

Ludicrous speed!

Will they paint the connectors plaid?

Re:One suggestion

[Jesus_666]

Yeah, but you only get a really warm feeing if your USB controller uses vacuum tubes. Seriously, after using vacuum tube-driven USB once, I'm not going back to that silicone crap.

Re:One suggestion

[jollyreaper]

Umm, you do realize that USB 1.0 and 2.0 use the exact same cables and connectors, don't you?

Just asking, because you sound too serious to be joking. But the thing with going to USB2 is that you have to loop the cable at the device side. See, the datastream is coming with such force, if you don't put the loop in the line it will be coming with too much pressure to be written properly. The loop helps slow the data flow to a writable rate.

With the high-speed hard drives these days, defag is more important than ever. At lower speeds, you could get away with having your data spread unevenly over the platters. With the rpm's the drives are doing now, that kind of imbalance can cause the platters to wobble and the bearings can go out. Defragging the drives spreads the data evenly and you get a nice, smooth operation.