back to article USB 3.0 speed to DOUBLE in 2013

USB 3.0 – aka SuperSpeed USB – is set to become more super-speedy, with a new specification scheduled for a mid-2013 release that will provide a one-two punch intended to greatly improve its theoretical throughput. "The USB 3.0 Promoter Group that defined and wrote the USB 3.0 spec is doing an amendment to the spec to increase …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Plaid

    Plaid.

    Short, sweet, to the point.

    USB Plaid.

    "They've gone plaid!"

  2. Esskay
    Go

    The name

    How about USB 3.1? Since it's a revision of the USB 3.0 spec, and thanks to TV manufacturers terms like "super" and "ultra" cause more confusion than anything...

    1. Chris Clawson

      Re: The name

      That was my first thought. No one I know uses the name "SuperSpeed" anyway.

      1. Boothy

        Re: The name

        Same here, in IT, many techi friends, not one of them ever refers to USB other than the version numbers.

        Keep it simple guys, 3.0, 3.1 etc.

        1. HAL4000
          Facepalm

          Re: The name

          My immediate thought was USB3.1 too... but you can't copyright/trademark a version number... and then charge companies an extra fee just to print it. UltraSuperMegaUSBPlusPlusHD™ it is then.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Coat

      Re: The name

      They'll probably call it "The New USB" and get sued by a certain fruity firm.

    3. Antidisestablishmentarianist

      Re: The name

      USB 3.0 HD?

      Also, that AudioQuest Coffee isn't an expensive USB cable, THIS is an expensive USB cable: http://www.locus-design.com/index.php/cynosure-usb-cable (scroll to the bottom, but prepare for the shock)

      1. Daniel Warner

        Wow. Just wow. These people are amazing. They talk about the "sound" going down the cable. IT'S A DATA CABLE!!! If the data gets to the other end, it gets there. End of. Anyone buying thus stuff needs their head examined.

        1. Esskay
          WTF?

          I still can't figure out if that website is a parody or not.... Some of the stuff there is more hilarious than the fake reviews on amazon - "These layers are one of the reasons that the cable takes a while to "settle" back in after it has been moved, or unplugged..."

          At least I can be safe in the knowledge that my USB cable will have ultra pure CFDCT-UP-OCC-Ag conductors; the ones in my last cable were only 99% CFDCT-UP-OCC-Ag.

          1. Irongut Silver badge

            Did you look at any of their other cables? $1599 for 5ft of speaker wire!?! Speaker wire!

            1. FartingHippo
              Facepalm

              For mugs only

              I also liked their return policy (and remember, you've just forked out $3.5k for 3 feet of cable):

              Any custom Locus Design cable may be returned within 30 days for a refund, if for some odd reason it does not perform as expected in your system. A 20% restocking fee (of the the total price) will be charged and any shipping charges incurred will be the responsibility of the buyer.

              Nice.

      2. Nick Ryan
        WTF?

        Re: The name

        Wow... that's one of the most ridiculous page of marketing techno babble about a data cable that I've ever seen.

        All that bullshit to carry digitally encoded audio down a data cable where the basic USB v1.0 spec has more than enough bandwidth to effortlessly transfer HD audio even with heavy error correction and with no perceivable impact to the quality of the sound.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: The name

      As noted in other replies, they should KISS, i.e. USB 2.0, 3.0, 3.1 etc

      They messed up by added branding, which only serves to confuse.

    5. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: The name

      Thunderbolt USB / Lightning USB

      ... in homage to Apfel fanboys

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: The name

        Thunderbolt USB / Lightning USB

        Magnifico-oh-oh...

      2. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        Re: The name

        >Thunderbolt USB / Lightning USB

        very, very frightening me

        Gallileo, Gallileo,

        Gallileo, Gallileo,

        Gallileo, Figaro ......

  3. Emo

    LightSpeed?

    RidiculousSpeed?

    LudicrousSpeed

    Nailed it.

    1. Simon Harris
      Go

      @Emo

      "LightSpeed? RidiculousSpeed? LudicrousSpeed"

      Surely...

      LightSpeed

      WarpSpeed

      TransWarpSpeed ?

      <--- Boldly

      1. Simon Harris
        Unhappy

        Re: @Emo - thumbs down :(

        Hangs head in shame for missing the Spaceballs reference!

    2. Silverburn
      Thumb Up

      +1 on the Spaceballs reference.

    3. Adam 1

      Light speed is too slow

    4. Loyal Commenter Silver badge
      Happy

      @Emo

      Dammit, beat me to it!

  4. Tom 35

    SuperDuper Speed

    Or maybe just "the New USB"

    The naming of versions in place of numbers is stupid most of the time. USB Vista?

  5. Jolyon Smith
    FAIL

    Call me old fashioned, but why not USB 4 ?

    Ah, because coming so soon after USB 3 took so long, people will rightly ask... what ? Why wasn't this in the products we already bought ? Did you rush to market or what ? And if so, why should we buy in to your rushed follow up to a botched first job ?

    1. P. Lee

      Re: Call me old fashioned, but why not USB 4 ?

      How about TIFKAUT

      The Interface formally known as Usb Three?

      or GFUT (Go Faster Usb Three).?

      That's pleasingly frigative.

    2. This post has been deleted by its author

  6. This post has been deleted by its author

  7. cyke1
    Happy

    how about

    Thunderbolt Killer?

    1. P. Lee

      Re: how about

      USB is fine for "non-critical stuff" - mice, keyboards, webcams for skype, poxy printers. These look like more enterprise speeds.

      I'd rather go with a dumbed-down lightpeak, than a fudged-up USB system.

      1. theblackhand

        Re: how about

        It's just a marketing number.... Without it Thunderbolt may look better.

        As long as Thunderbolt and USB3 run at the same theoretical speed, USB3 will win on cost and those that need or are forced to use Thunderbolt will continue to do so.

        See USB vs FireWire for additional examples.

  8. DvorakUser

    I think that...

    USB 3.1 would be best. It's still the same technology as USB 3.0, just with a minor change (that reaps massive benefits).

    1. Philipsz
      Meh

      Re: I think that...

      Agreed. USB 3.1 would be simple and clear. Which is probably the reason it will not be chosen. ;)

  9. Alan W. Rateliff, II
    Paris Hilton

    NorrisSpeed USB

    Norris is a unit of force, but could it be extended to a speed?

    Paris, should be a unit, too.

    1. Aremmes
      Boffin

      Re: NorrisSpeed USB

      Of course it can be extended to speed: an object onto which a roundhouse kick of one Norris of force has been applied flies at a terminal speed of one Chuck.

    2. Francis Boyle

      Re: NorrisSpeed USB

      The Hilton is indeed a unit of speed - unfortunately it only applies in one direction.

  10. Dave Hilling
    Stop

    How about a few devices that come close to maxing out 3.0 first. I have yet to see much more than 80-90MB/s on my USB 3 hard drives.

    1. Boothy

      You do know that 80-90MB/s is typical speeds for hard drives? (They may state they are SATA 3/6, but that's just burst speed from cache, real word through put is still limited by the spinning disk).

      If you want to see real USB 3.0 speeds. you'll have to buy an SSD instead.

      1. This post has been deleted by its author

      2. Dave Hilling
        FAIL

        Yes quite well aware and most crappy USB 3 controllers are lucky to even burst to 110. Most of them suck I have ran 3 usb 3 drives at the same time and could barely get them to 150 aggregate.

      3. JEDIDIAH
        Linux

        Quite Right.

        Quite Right.

        I have gotten 100MB/s out of my wired GigE network. That was driven by a single big-but-cheap spinny disk.

        Your spinny disk is the real bottleneck, not the external storage bus.

  11. Khaptain Silver badge
    Boffin

    Firmware

    I presume that this means that all existing Firmwares will require updating.

    At least with a cable it is a simple matter or replacing the cable, with Firmware there's always a lot of "crossed fingers" involved..

  12. Andy 70

    Meh

    can we not just have one standard please? lightpeek seems as good as any with PCIe direct and displayport multiplexed together.

    there's the obligitory XKCD for competing standards somewhere...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Meh

      Yes, let's have one standard.

      Let's call is a "Universal" one, of course needs some sort of bus to run on and maybe if we could link up things in series, to keep it simple.

      Dammed if I can think of a name for it.

      1. Chris Rowland

        Re: Meh

        Universal? I thought it was Unreliable.

        One who's wasted far too much time with USB to RS232 interfaces.

  13. James Hughes 1

    Differences..

    Between the $500 Coffee 10ft USB and the $20 off the shelf 10ft USB cable == 0.

    (Note, go too cheap and you definitely get crappy cables with not enough actual metal down the wires to do the job)

    And Hyperspeed, obviously.

  14. frank ly
    Coffee/keyboard

    Audio Quest Coffee cable

    Thank you for the link to the Audioquest cables. I love the way they bias and polarise the insulation around the cable (10% solid silver) to minimise the multiple non-linear time delays - just one of many innovations. I'll never be able to afford one, but it's like reading about the latest model of Ferrari - I can dream.

    1. Irongut Silver badge

      Re: Audio Quest Coffee cable

      Go read about the cables from Locus Design, they make the Audioquest cables look like a Ford Fiesta. :p

      1. frank ly

        @Irongut Re: Audio Quest Coffee cable

        http://www.locus-design.com/index.php/cynosure-usb-cable

        Thank you! Thank you !!

  15. Richard Lloyd

    Decaspeed?

    Don't see the point of naming USB 3.1 as anything, but since it can go 10 Gigabit/sec, "Decaspeed" might be one possibility.

    Of more importance though: having started to shift USB 3.0 in decent numbers at long last, will existing USB 3.0 setups see any speed improvement anywhere in the chain (assuming drivers have been updated to 3.1)? Or will everything (motherboard included) have to be replaced with 3.1 equivalents?

  16. Kevin McMurtrie Silver badge

    If it was...

    Dialup: USB 3.0v.2

    DSL: USB 3.02+

    WiFi: USB 3.0g

    Cell: USB 3.0 LTE

    Apple: Corona Cord

    Windows: Enterprise USB

    Intel: Penngrove

    Audi: 2013 USB S3

    Bargain bin: USB 3.0 v2.2 ultra speed 1000GHz

    Government: USB 3.0 Section 521, Article 134.5.c

  17. Fai

    USB 3.1 SuperSpeedPlus

    There sorted, now go release.

  18. This post has been deleted by its author

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Due to lack of DMA it will have double the CPU drain too.

  20. Z80

    Just call it USB 3.0 2.0 to avoid confusion.

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    lose the techy names for standards

    Lets just call it USBWang

  22. jason 7
    Facepalm

    This isnt about making stuff faster.....

    ..it's all about market churn that's all.

    Ohhh stir it up a bit! Look that one goes one louder!!!

  23. Jon Green
    Holmes

    Easy brand upgrade

    "SuperSpeed x2".

    Simples. *squeek*

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Drop the names and version numbers

    Follow the old CD and DVD idea, go back to using x2, x8, etc measured against USB 1.0. Consumers are used to this and know that the higher the xN number, the better the performance.

    Or even simpler and a much better way to explain the benefits to the consumer: USB 5G, USB 10G, etc.

  25. asmblur

    USB3++

  26. Poor Coco
    Thumb Up

    Why hasn’t anyone else noticed this?

    Double clock rate + improved encoding = “DoublePlusGood USB”

  27. Zap

    Suggested Name

    If the spec requires no new hardware for existing users then something around USB3 such as USB3Plus but if as before it needs new kit then USB10g or USB10gb immediately suggests a speed demon, riding on the back of 3g and 4g and it sets a naming convention for the future, e.g. USB500gb and USB2tb (ever the optimist)!

  28. h3

    Stupid. (I did a test with an ssd connected via both esata and usb 3.0). usb is still utter shite.

  29. h 6
    Go

    Ludicrous speed.

  30. David Roberts
    Pint

    USB 3D?

    Seems to sell TVs.

  31. billse10

    USB-wtf

    wouldn't it be better to get existing USB tin to actually work at existing USB 3.0 speeds first?

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