The USB 3.0 Promoter Group — honestly, there is such a thing — has finalised the next iteration of Universal Serial Bus, and it’s going to run at a lightning fast 10Gbps.
The .1 upgrade will be entirely backwards compatible USB 3.0 and 2.0 kit but will obviously need 3.1 kit to run at full speed. The idea of 3.1 was floated back in January, but now it’s official — though there’s still no word on when the first USB 3.1 devices will arrive. It seems likely, however, that products should be available in the new year.
While Intel’s Thunderbolt 2 will land before the end of the year, boasting an even quicker 20Gbps transfer speed, that shouldn’t worry USB advocates too much; it seems likely that 3.1 will be more widely adopted than the new Intel standard, if track record is anything to go by. Either way, files transfer speeds just got a real shot in the arm. [ USB Implementers Forum via The Reg]
Picture: Bill Selak