How Does USB 3.0 Achieve The Extra Performance?
How Does USB 3.0 Achieve The Extra Performance?
How Does USB 3.0 Achieve The Extra Performance?
up from 500 mA). This means that more power-hungry devices could be buspowered, and battery
powered devices that previously charged using bus powercould potentially charge more quickly.
o
A new Powered-B receptable is defined with two extra contacts that enable adevices to provide up to
1000 mA to another device, such as a
Wireless USBadapter
. This eliminates the need for a power supply to accompany thewireless adapter...coming just a bit
closer to the ideal system of a wireless linkwithout wires (not even for power). In regular wired USB
connections to a hostor hub, these 2 extra contacts are not used.
•
Less power when it's not needed
Power efficiency was a key objective in the move to USB 3.0. Some examples of moreefficient use of
power are:
o
Link level power management, which means either the host computer or thedevice can initiate a
power savings state when idle
o
The ability for links to enter progressively lower power management stateswhen the link partners are
idle
o
Continuous device polling is eliminated
o
Broadcast packet transmission through hubs is eliminated
o
Device and individual function level suspend capabilities allow devices toremove power from all, or
portions of their circuitry not in use
•
Streaming for bulk transfers is supported for faster performance
•
Isochronous transfers allows devices to enter low power link states between serviceintervals
•
Devices can communicate new information such as their latency tolerance to the host,which allows
better power performanceTo paint an accurate picture, not everything in USB 3.0 is a clear
improvement. Cable length,for one, is expected to have a significant limitation when used in
applications demanding thehighest possible throughput. Although maximum cable length is not
specified in the USB 3.0specification, the electrical properties of the cable and signal quality
limitations may limit thepractical length to around 3 metres when multi-gigabit transfer rates are
desired. This length,of course, can be extended through the use of hubs or
signal extenders
.Additionally, some SuperSpeed USB hardware, such as hubs, may always be more expensivethan
their USB 2.0 counterparts. This is because by definition, a SuperSpeed hub contains 2hubs: one that
enumerates as a SuperSpeed hub, and a second one that enumerates as aregular high-speed hub. Until
the USB hub silicon becomes an integrated SuperSpeed USB + Hi-Speed USB part, there may always
be a significant price difference.Some unofficial discussion has surfaced on the web with respect to
fiber-optic cabling forlonger cable length with USB 3.0. The specification makes no mention of
optical cabling, so weconclude that this will be defined in a future spec revision, or left to 3rd party
companies toimplement cable extension solutions for SuperSpeed USB.
4. Will my existing peripherals still work? How will they co-exist?
The good news is that USB 3.0 has been carefully planned from the start to peacefully co-exist
with USB 2.0. First of all, while USB 3.0 specifies new physical connections and thus new cablesto
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 locationas before. Five new
connections to carry receive and transitted data independently are presenton USB 3.0 cables and only
come into contact when mated with a proper SuperSpeed USBconnection.
5. Where are those SuperSpeed USB 3.0 products?
USB 3.0 silicon such as USB host controllers, peripheral chipsets and hubs compliant with
theSuperSpeed bus have arrived in the latter half of 2009. Since then, a handful of
external harddrives
,
flash drives
, storage docks,
Blu-ray optical drives
, high-end notebooks, and
hostadapters
in both PCI Express and ExpressCard have begun appearing on retail shelves. Othercompanies have
shown their plans to roll out