Apple may adopt 5Gbps USB standard early

Apple could be one of the early computer builders to adopt USB 3.0 if a leak proves true. Those within the Taiwan electronics business claim Genesys Logic is providing test samples of USB 3.0 controllers to Apple. Publicly, Genesys has denied the talk, though DigiTimes notes that it's not uncommon for Apple to depend on many local Taiwan suppliers for its parts.

To prove its point, the publication goes so far as to name some of the component firms for the iPad. Notably, it says Broadcom not only won deals to provide the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi hardware but to make the chip that controls multi-touch input. As with the iPhone, Infineon once again is said to have provided the 3G and RF chips. Smaller part suppliers include Novatek for the LCD driver and both Linear as well as NXP for power management controllers.

Separately, another report claims Radiant Opto-Electronics shipped about 300,000 LED backlights for the iPad last month.

USB 3.0 is a significant upgrade to the external peripheral standard that increases the speed by more than 10 times, to 5Gbps, and will allow SSDs or other devices to run at full speed where USB 2.0 often bottlenecks their performance. Apple has often been considered one of the champions of USB, helping to popularize it with the iMac in 1998.

By Electronista Staff

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industry, upgrades/storage, Infineon, Broadcom, NXP, Apple, iPad, Genesys Logic, Novatek, Linear