Recently, the trade organization responsible for the USB 3.0 specification announced a new technology upgrade that boasts even higher data transfer speeds over the older spec.
The new, modified iteration of SuperSpeed USB 3.0 promises to deliver a data transfer rate of up to approximately 10Gbps. The new upgrade will bring a significant speed boost to the current SuperSpeed USB 3.0 technology, which supports high-transfer speeds of up to 4.8Gbps.
While Intel’s Thunderbolt connectors, which are found on modern Mac computers, currently provide transfer speeds up to 10Gbps, the peripherals built for Thunderbolt tend to be significantly more expensive than those built for USB.
Additionally, due to the fact that the new version of USB 3.0 utilizes the same connector, existing devices will still be able to operate through the high-speed ports (much like how current USB 3.0 ports are backwards compatible with USB 2.0 devices).
The new protocol is said to be completed sometime in 2013 with the first batch of products estimated to incorporate the technology sometime within late-2014 or 2015. Stay tuned for complete coverage on the upcoming next-generation of SuperSpeed USB 3.0 technology.
