The USB3.0 market finally seems to be taking off - the USB Design Forum (USB-IF) recently certified nearly 120 products that comply with the USB3.0 specification (SuperSpeedUSB). The transfer rate of USB3.0 can be increased from 480Mb per second of the original USB2.0 to 5G per second. USB-IF said that the batch of certified products cover motherboards, laptops, storage controllers, hard drives, PCIExpress and individual chips. According to international research institute IDC is expected to 2010 USB3.0 chip demand for 12.45 million, 2011 will have the opportunity to jump to 100 million. USB3.0 can be described as a "promising future", and various people have begun to take turns to attack the new market of this epoch-making transmission technology.
Intel action helps popularize
Recently, Intel announced in the autumn Developer Forum (IDF) that in addition to the SandyBridge motherboard launched next year has determined to incorporate USB3.0 into the reference design, the Westmere motherboard that will be mass-produced in the fourth quarter will also have built-in USB3.0 independent host control chip. This will help accelerate the adoption of USB3.0.
Looking back at the development of USB2.0, it can be found that after the birth of USB2.0 technology in 2000, the penetration rate has exceeded 80% in just four years. The key to the rapid popularization of USB2.0 in the market is that Intel quickly imported USB2.0 into the Southbridge chip, so Intel's attitude is the key to the rapid explosion of USB3.0 business opportunities. Intel's new processor SandyBridge, which will be launched early next year, does not have a built-in USB3.0 host controller in the CougarPoint chipset, which makes the industry quite angry. At present, many Oems and laptop manufacturers have listed USB3.0 as standard equipment. At the same time, Intel's biggest rival Super (AMD) also decided to launch the HudsON chipset with built-in USB3.0 controller in the second quarter of next year, and will also cooperate with Renesas to introduce the USB3.0 controller to the motherboard, officially and fully introducing the USB3.0 interface. In this case, Intel's strong support for USB3.0 should be a move to follow the trend.
It is worth noting that Intel's fiber optic transmission interface LightPeak has not yet completed the specification development, the progress has fallen behind, and it is feared that it will be delayed until the beginning of 2012. LightPeak will use the same connectors as USB3.0. Intel also said that LightPeak and USB3.0 will coexist in the future and will not be in a competitive state.
