USB 3.1 Official: 10Gbps Transfer Speeds

In the PC realm almost all of our peripherals are USB based, some require fast transfer speeds while others just simply get recognized and work. In any case though, USB has proven itself to be a protocol that is sticking around and evolving, as well as just growing in number in terms of devices connected via the USB port.

External hard drives are one device in which faster can only mean better, as the less time you have to wait for files to transfer the less productivity time is wasted just playing the waiting game. In keeping up with technology advances, the USB 3.0 Promoter Group announced by PDF that the USB 3.1 specification is totally complete and that it will raise the “SuperSpeed” USB transfer rate up to 10Gbp.

This will mean speeds double that of the current USB 3.0 ports that you have in your cases now since USB 3.0 is 5Gbps. This will also put USB 3.1 in a more direct competition to Intel’s Thunderbolt technology and hopefully see “SuperSpeed” USB more widely accepted and implemented in future motherboards. The new spec will be fully backwards compatible with USB 3.0 and USB 2.0, but only new ports manufactured with the USB 3.1 spec will be able to take advantage of the new speed limit. When ODMs will implement this new spec into their designs is unknown at this point. This is great news for many of us users who transfer a lot of media via an external device and would love to get things done in a faster time period.

“The USB 3.1 specification primarily extends existing USB 3.0 protocol and hub operation for speed scaling along with defining the next higher physical layer speed as 10 Gbps,” said Brad Saunders, USB 3.0 Promoter Group Chairman.”

The specification team worked hard to make sure that the changes made to support higher speeds were limited and remained consistent with existing USB 3.0 architecture to ease product development.” Thunderbolt is still faster, that is a fact, but there are currently a lot more devices that use the USB protocol in lieu of Thunderbolt as it has been around a lot longer and is cheaper to implement into a motherboards design than Thunderbolt currently is.

Acer was the first PC manufacture to implement Intel’s Thunderbolt technology back in 2012, but the company has now announced its plans to drop the technology from its system lineup and focus solely on USB 3.0 for the time being. “We’re really focusing on USB 3.0 — it’s an excellent alternative to Thunderbolt,” said Acer spokeswoman Ruth Rosene. “It’s less expensive, offers comparable bandwidth, charging for devices such as mobile phones, and has a large installed base of accessories and peripherals.”

In the meantime it seems Intel is also supporting the new USB 3.1 spec notwithstanding its Thunderbolt push into the market, with their response to this move: “The industry has affirmed the strong demand for higher through-put, for user-connected peripherals and docks, by coming together to produce a quality “SuperSpeed” USB 10Gbps specification,” said Alex Peleg, Vice President, Intel Architecture Group.” Intel is fully committed to deliver on this request.” Developer conferences regarding USB 3.1 will take place in Hillsboro, Oregon (Aug. 21), Dublin, Ireland (Oct. 1-2) and a two-day session during December in Asia. Additional information about these conferences can be found on the USB-IF website. Thanks for reading Tech Of Tomorrow folks where we want to hear what you have to say. So what do you folks think, is USB 3.1 something that excites you, or do you feel Thunderbolt should become the new standard? You tell us and we will listen, peace and best wishes my friends☺.

Source: Tom’s Hardware