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    USB 3.0 status

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by notebook303, Feb 5, 2011.

  1. notebook303

    notebook303 Notebook Evangelist

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    I am seeing more notebooks with a least 1 USB 3.0 ports appear this year so far and a couple with 2 USB 3.0 ports.

    Does anyone think we will see a notebook with all USB 3.0 ports this year? (If there isn’t one that I am aware of out there already). Or do you think that won’t happen until IVY Bridge when it looks like intel finally offers native USB 3.0 support?
     
    notebook303, Feb 5, 2011
    #1
  2. talin

    talin Notebook Prophet

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    Most likely not until Ivy Bridge since that's when Intel finally gets behind USB 3.0 fully. :rolleyes:
     
    talin, Feb 5, 2011
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  3. Ryan

    Ryan NBR Moderator

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    Well, SB seems to bring forth lots of options for USB 3.0..

    :D Look into those in a few months...
     
    Ryan, Feb 5, 2011
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  4. talin

    talin Notebook Prophet

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    SB doesn't bring the options, the computer manufacturers are bringing the options through a third party NEC chip.
     
    talin, Feb 5, 2011
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  5. Josh.Y

    Josh.Y Newbie

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    I think Roger has it right. A lot of desktop mobos are sporting an NEC chip to handle all USB 3.0 options. I think lightpeak is what we really need to be looking forward to.
     
    Josh.Y, Feb 6, 2011
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  6. ctown.myth

    ctown.myth Notebook Consultant

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    Intel won't be pushing USB 3.0, it's LightPeak they're all humming about. That should be available at the earliest in Ivy, but Haswell is more predictable (is that even the right word?).
     
    ctown.myth, Feb 6, 2011
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  7. sgogeta4

    sgogeta4 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    sgogeta4, Feb 6, 2011
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  8. Charles P. Jefferies

    Charles P. Jefferies Lead Moderator Super Moderator

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    As other posts have noted, USB 3.0 is not native to the current notebook (or desktop) platforms. Notebook manufacturers need to put in a separate add-in card to get USB 3.0, which increases production cost. At the moment it's only being found in more expensive notebooks for that reason.

    Something to keep in mind with notebooks that offer two USB 3.0 ports - my HP 8740w has two USB 3.0 ports; however, if I use both of them at the same time (connecting two USB 3.0 hard drives), I won't get full bandwidth out of both ports at the same time. The bandwidth is split between them. Check the controller that USB 3.0-equipped notebooks use.
     
    Charles P. Jefferies, Feb 6, 2011
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  9. waleed786

    waleed786 Notebook Evangelist

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    I thought this was the issue with all USB ports..the bandwidth is shared amongst all the USB ports on the computer..or no?
     
    waleed786, Feb 6, 2011
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  10. chimpanzee

    chimpanzee Notebook Virtuoso

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    The slide on the upcoming Intel chipset seems to saying it will be full 3.0 speed for all 4.
     
    chimpanzee, Feb 6, 2011
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  11. 83bj60

    83bj60 Notebook Evangelist

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    What USB 3.0 chipset does the 8740w use? The Renesas controller is supposed to be able support two USB 3.0 ports per chip, whereas the Fresco Logic only supports one.

    Another question - when hard drives can barely sustain 100MB/s at the outer edges (.8Gb/s), how can the USB 3.0 specification, with its max speed of 5Gb/s (or 2.5 when using an adapter card), be a bottleneck? Isn't the bottleneck the computer itself?

    In other words - isn't the bandwidth issue you are referring to, in reality unrelated to USB 3.0?
     
    83bj60, Feb 7, 2011
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  12. Trottel

    Trottel Notebook Virtuoso

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    Since USB supports port multiplication, that would completely explain Charlie's problem.

    I'm sure there is more than just hard drives that can be attached to USB 3.0 and there are ways to independently test the bandwidth. Also according to the spec it should be normal to have only 400MB/s, or only 3.2Gb/s in practice.
     
    Trottel, Feb 7, 2011
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  13. ajreynol

    ajreynol Notebook Virtuoso

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    I thought Intel was all about lightpeek?
     
    ajreynol, Feb 7, 2011
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  14. Jayayess1190

    Jayayess1190 Waiting on Intel Cannonlake

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    Read .
     
    Jayayess1190, Feb 7, 2011
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  15. Judicator

    Judicator Judged and found wanting.

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    Don't forget the extra overhead involved with USB; for example, USB 2.0 has a theoretical data rate of 60 MBps (480 Mbps), but will usually only manage about half to two-thirds of that (30-40 MBps). Supposedly, 400 MBps is a "reasonably achievable" speed for USB 3.0, but, as always, that should probably be taken with a significant grain of salt.

    As well, don't forget that as an external drive, a USB 3.0 drive is not limited to the 2.5" form factor; 3.5" drives can easily get up to 130 MB/s or so at their outer edges, and there's also the possibility of RAID 0 array enclosures, not to mention external SSDs.

    Oh, and for the record, the 8740w USB 3.0 controller is listed as a NEC electronics controller, which is the same as most of the other early business class computer controllers.
     
    Judicator, Feb 10, 2011
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  16. 83bj60

    83bj60 Notebook Evangelist

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    Hey, 400MB/s is great, and even half of that is not too shabby at all (using an expresscard adpter limited to 2.5Gb/s or 200MB/s, even using the two-third efficiency rule is faster than what most external drives can push at this time). Heck, it's already faster than my internal drive as it is... I'm certainly not complaining!

    That 8740w, with its onboard USB 3.0 port theoretically able to reach a realistic 250MB/s-300MB/s or so sure looks more and more attractive to me as time goes on :)
     
    83bj60, Feb 11, 2011
    #16