Universal Serial Bus, or USB, was introduced in 1996. It dramatically
simplified the connection between host computers and peripheral devices
like mice, keyboards, external drivers, and printers.
Let's take a quick look on the USB evolution referencing
to the table below.
Table 1. USB evolutionThis table shows the USB evolution.
Type
Data Transfer Rate
Category
Introduction Year
USB 2.0
480 Mbps
High Speed
2000
USB 3.0/USB 3.1 Gen 1
5 Gbps
Super Speed
2010
USB 3.1 Gen 2
10 Gbps
Super Speed
2013
USB 3.0/USB 3.1 Gen
1 (SuperSpeed USB)
For years, the USB 2.0
has been firmly entrenched as the de facto interface standard in the
PC world with about 6 billion devices sold, and yet the need for more
speed grows by ever faster computing hardware and ever greater bandwidth
demands. The USB 3.0/USB 3.1 Gen 1 finally has the answer to the consumers'
demands with a theoretically 10 times faster than its predecessor.
In a nutshell, USB 3.1 Gen 1 features are as follows:
Higher transfer
rates (up to 5 Gbps)
Increased
maximum bus power and increased device current draw to better accommodate
power-hungry devices
New power
management features
Full-duplex data transfers
and support for new transfer types
Backward
USB 2.0 compatibility
New connectors and cable
The topics below cover some of the most commonly
asked questions regarding USB 3.0/USB 3.1 Gen 1.
Speed
Currently, there are 3 speed modes defined by the latest
USB 3.0/USB 3.1 Gen 1 specification. They are Super-Speed, Hi-Speed
and Full-Speed. The new SuperSpeed mode has a transfer rate of 4.8Gbps.
While the specification retains Hi-Speed, and Full-Speed USB mode,
commonly known as USB 2.0 and 1.1 respectively, the slower modes still
operate at 480Mbps and 12Mbps respectively and are kept to maintain
backward compatibility.
USB 3.0/USB 3.1 Gen 1
achieves the much higher performance by the technical changes below:
An additional physical
bus that is added in parallel with the existing USB 2.0 bus (refer
to the picture below).
USB 2.0 previously had
four wires (power, ground, and a pair for differential data); USB
3.0/USB 3.1 Gen 1 adds four more for two pairs of differential signals
(receive and transmit) for a combined total of eight connections in
the connectors and cabling.
USB 3.0/USB 3.1 Gen 1
utilizes the bidirectional data interface, rather than USB 2.0's half-duplex
arrangement. This gives a 10-fold increase in theoretical bandwidth.
With today's ever
increasing demands placed on data transfers with high-definition video
content, terabyte storage devices, high megapixel count digital cameras
etc., USB 2.0 may not be fast enough. Furthermore, no USB 2.0 connection
could ever come close to the 480Mbps theoretical maximum throughput,
making data transfer at around 320Mbps (40MB/s) — the actual real-world
maximum. Similarly, USB 3.0/USB 3.1 Gen 1 connections will never achieve
4.8Gbps. We will likely see a real-world maximum rate of 400MB/s with
overheads. At this speed, USB 3.0/USB 3.1 Gen 1 is a 10x improvement
over USB 2.0.
Applications
USB 3.0/USB 3.1 Gen 1 opens up the laneways and
provides more headroom for devices to deliver a better overall experience.
Where USB video was barely tolerable previously (both from a maximum
resolution, latency, and video compression perspective), it's easy
to imagine that with 5-10 times the bandwidth available, USB video
solutions should work that much better. Single-link DVI requires almost
2Gbps throughput. Where 480Mbps was limiting, 5Gbps is more than promising.
With its promised 4.8Gbps speed, the standard will find its way into
some products that previously weren't USB territory, like external
RAID storage systems.
Listed below are some of the
available SuperSpeed USB 3.0/USB 3.1 Gen 1 products:
External Desktop USB
3.0/USB 3.1 Gen 1 Hard Drives
Portable USB 3.0/USB
3.1 Gen 1 Hard Drives
USB 3.0/USB 3.1 Gen 1
Drive Docks & Adapters
USB 3.0/USB 3.1 Gen 1
Flash Drives & Readers
USB 3.0/USB 3.1 Gen 1
Solid-state Drives
USB 3.0/USB 3.1 Gen 1
RAIDs
Optical Media Drives
Multimedia Devices
Networking
USB 3.0/USB 3.1 Gen 1
Adapter Cards & Hubs
Compatibility
The good news is that USB 3.0/USB 3.1 Gen 1 has been
carefully planned from the start to peacefully co-exist with USB 2.0.
First of all, while USB 3.0/USB 3.1 Gen 1 specifies new physical connections
and thus new cables to take advantage of the higher speed capability
of the new protocol, the connector itself remains the same rectangular
shape with the four USB 2.0 contacts in the exact same location as
before. Five new connections to carry receive and transmitted data
independently are present on USB 3.0/USB 3.1 Gen 1 cables and only
come into contact when connected to a proper SuperSpeed USB connection.
Windows 10 will be bringing native support for
USB 3.1 Gen 1 controllers. This is in contrast to previous versions
of Windows, which continue to require separate drivers for USB 3.0/USB
3.1 Gen 1 controllers.
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