USB 3.0

[Jason]

By now, USB 2.0 is standard (I remember 1.0 like it was yesterday!)...

But check out these speeds.  HOLY COW!

http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9780794-7.html

Snippets:

Intel and others plan to release a new version of the ubiquitous Universal Serial Bus technology in the first half of 2008, a revamp the chipmaker said will make data transfer rates more than 10 times as fast by adding fiber-optic links alongside the traditional copper wires.

and

The current USB 2.0 version has a top data-transfer rate of 480 megabits per second, so a tenfold increase would be 4.8 gigabits per second. Many devices don't need that much capacity, but some can use more, including hard drives, flash card readers and optical drives such as DVD, Blu-ray and HD DVD. The fastest flash card readers today use IEEE 1394 "FireWire" connections that top out at 800 megabits per second.

In addition, USB 3.0 will offer greater energy efficiency, Gelsinger said. It will be backward compatible, so current USB 2.0 devices will be able to plug into USB 3.0 ports.

Bring it on!

[Mark]

I'm just waiting for the day that everything becomes fiber-optic. The back of the computer will just have 30 fiber-optic plugs and you can plug whatever where ever.

[akheir]

I'm just waiting for the day that everything becomes fiber-optic. The back of the computer will just have 30 fiber-optic plugs and you can plug whatever where ever.

...but that would be a step back from the 127 devices available now!....(You know that users will never accept that, especially those who only have a printer and mouse attached. )

[Mark]

You know that users will never accept that, especially those who only have a printer and mouse attached.

Ah yes, but no one was ready to accept USB when it first came out either. Now, the majority of home computers have a USB printer, mouse, and maybe keyboard attached.

The trick is just to ease it in. Just like USB, there was an option between the old way and the new way. Nowadays, for instance, I don't think you can find many home printers that have the old parallel port.

[Jason]

They just need to start incorporating it on boards and go from there.  Given that it's backwards compatible with 2.0, (just like 2.0 was), they can immediately start shipping new mobo's with it.

I remember when USB 2.0 was pretty new that I was building myself a computer at the time. I purchased a motherboard that was completely USB -- no ps1 connections for the mouse/keyboard.  If they do things like that, people will buy it.  I still have that mobo in use on a linux box.  It limits the distributions I can install because some won't initialize usb at the onset, but good ones like Fedora always have.