Files transferring.
Theo Boshoff
Everyone knows about USB 2.0, but have you heard anything about USB 3.0? Well, you will be very happy to hear that USB 3.0 is fast on its way to being developed and integrated into our everyday gadgetry and PCs soon.

What’s so exciting about USB 3.0 is, without a doubt, the increased speed it offers in terms of data transfer rates. USB 3.0 offers 5 gigabits per second (Gbps) data transfer speed – with a bandwidth of 600 Mbps. This is ten times faster than USB 2.0 transfer speeds, so it’s no wonder it’s also called SupperSpeed USB.

To put it into perspective, to transfer a 25GB High Definition (HD) movie through USB 2.0 will take you in the region of 14 minutes. With USB 3.0, it will take you about 70 seconds. That’s according to tests results revealed by Microsoft.

Seeing that our everyday lives now include a multitude of multimedia consumption, such as music, movies and photographs, the incorporation of USB 3.0-capable PCs and devices will not only save time, but make life much easier. Not only will transferring movies from, say an external hard drive, be quicker, but the general communication between devices, such as between DVD players and TVs, PCs and printers, scanners and cameras will be like never before.

This year has been touted as the year when we will start seeing USB 3.0 consumer devices entering the market in a big way.
USB 3.0 will replace the current 'Hi-Speed' USB 2.0 standard, but devices will be backwards compatible as well, which means your old technology will still be able to communicate with each other, but not at the optimal speeds offered by USB 3.0.

What also makes USB 3.0 fantastic is the fact that it is bi-directional, which means that it can read/write data simultaneously, where USB 2.0 could only send info in one direction at a time.

There aren’t many USB 3.0 devices available on the market yet. You can actually count them on one hand, but it’s expected that a whole host of new products will be on shelves before the end of the year.
Here’s hoping.