Intel holding off on USB 3.0 until 2011?
updated 12:45 pm EDT, Thu October 22, 2009
May slow adoption of important tech
Intel has postponed its support of USB 3.0 until 2011, a new report claims. The information is said to come from a senior technology manager at a "top tier PC maker," who says that Intel chipset teams are more focused on supporting the current Nehalem platform, as well as transitioning to 5GHz PCIe 2.0. "They need to prioritize their time and resources on a whole host of things and have to consider the compelling needs for USB 3.0 now versus 18 months later," says the manager.
USB 3.0 should prove useful for devices such as cameras, media players and backup drives, due to speeds as high as 5Gbps, and backwards compatibility with USB 2.0. Without Intel's backing however the technology is expected to gain little traction, due to many computer makers' reliance on standard Intel chipsets. Intel may also be showing preference to its own Light Peak format, which can handle transfers up to 10Gbps. The technology may have difficulty gaining support in its own right, due to the widespread prevalence of USB.
Grizzled Veteran
Joined: Oct 1999
if rumours are true
The Light-peak connector will be physically backwards compatible with the USB connector because you still need copper to carry power even if using light to carry data.