Can You Get USB 3.0 Now?

Short answer: No. Not on the consumer side, anyway. Consumer products for the USB 3.0 specification will appear in 2010 which is not all that far away.

How to recognize USB 3.0 when it’s available?

Look for the "SuperSpeed" and "SS" logos, like these:

What new features will be in USB 3.0?

SuperSpeed as shown above. It gives a raw throughput of 500 megabytes, however the realistic transfer rate will be somewhere around 400. But that still kicks the crap out of USB 2.0, transfer speed-wise.

3.0 spec does support power management features for idle/speed/suspend and so on.

Power delivery from 3.0 has increased 50% compared to USB 2.0. Unit load will be 150mA. This means you’ll be seeing more USB gadgets that weren’t available before because there wasn’t enough power coming from 2.0 to run it.

Will USB 3.0 be backwards compatible with 2.0?

Yes – but with one exception. Standard USB 3.0 ports can use 2.0 or 3.0. But what’s labeled as "Standard-B" can only use 3.0-spec Standard-B plugs.

What does it look like?

Standard-B:

Mini-B (has a very noticeable notch):

When will it be here?

As said above, 2010. And we’re talking first quarter 2010 between January and March.

Will there be a card I can buy and install in my PC when it’s available?

PC hardware for USB 3.0 should be available at the same time USB 3.0 consumer devices are introduced to market.

The cards should be cheap. How much they will be I have no idea, but my guess would be below $35. In order for us as consumers to embrace 3.0 spec, the cards we need to use 3.0 must be at a low price point.

Personally, I’m really looking forward to USB 3.0. My only real complaint about 2.0 is the slow transfer speed, and 3.0 will take care of that in short order.

Lastly, for those that ask, "Will my operating system support it?", USB 3.0 should be supported with absolutely no problems at all on Windows, Mac or Linux.

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DOS_equis
Cool. The one thing that I have never understood is if something is ” backwards compatable ” they sometimes find it necessary to make a unique version so you might have to use an adapter to convert it over. Whats wrong with just using the original design if it will work? They also have the habit of making more types of plug sizes than I think is necessary, like the USB A and mini A, USB B and mini B etc… How about a large and small version and thats it. It just makes it more dificult to use products sometimes if you don’t have the original cord handy.
Sorry for the rant.
General Public
Agree with DOS_equis – coz these mutants tend to diminish the U of the USB!
Zach
Well, it’s all about capitalizm… Think of how many fewer jobs there would be if there were a truly UNIVERSAL connector, where we now have 6 million connectors we would just have one??
There would be fewer Doctors too, why you ask? There wouldn’t be the need to write ANY blood pressure med-scripts, we would have fewer strokes, heart attacks, fewer pretzels lodged in one’s throat…
With only one connector less plastic and rubber would be needed flushing the numbers of computer suppliers and their manufacturers out of business, with the surplus in rubber and plastic eventually that too would be cut, meaning that in the end the raw materials necessary to manufacture plastic and rubber, oh let me not forget the copper wire makers this applies to them as well.
The number one ingredient in plastic(s) are petroleum distillate’s; it is conceivable that the United States will no longer buy oil from the Middle East as a result of these savings… Then there is the stock market…
Come to think of it, without ALL of those connectors the u.S. is very likely to got into full economic collapse..