First draft of USB 3.0 vision standard published

The first draft of the USB 3.0 standard is now available to the USB3 Vision technical committee. The draft defines device identification and control interfaces, data streaming mechanisms, mechanical requirements and testing frameworks.

Bob McCurrach, the Director of Standard Development at the AIA (Ann Arbor, MI, USA), said that the draft would provide a framework for developers to start designing products that were compliant with the new standard.

USB 3.0 -- also known as SuperSpeed USB -- is the next generation of the plug and play Universal Serial Bus serial communication specification. It is managed by the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), and is designed to build on the strengths of USB 2.0 while addressing many of its limitations.

The effective bandwidth available with USB 3.0 via a bulk transfer method is around 400 MByte/sec. This is approximately ten times the bandwidth available with USB 2.0, and five times that of the 1394b standard.

Although the USB 3.0 cable contains five new wires, it is still backward-compatible with USB 2.0, allowing consumers to continue to use their existing USB 2.0 peripherals with a USB 3.0-enabled computer.

-- by Dave Wilson, Senior Editor, Vision Systems Design