USB 3.0: Coming soon to a device near you!

[mxyzptlk]

http://blog.scifi.com/tech/archives/2007/09/19/usb_30_coming_w.html

Copy-pasta:

USB 3.0 improves upon its successors by adding fiber-optic cable alongside the copper wiring, greatly increasing the speeds. The upgrade should allow for high-def devices, such as HD DVD or Blu-ray players, to use the standard to send data. As of now, today's USB cables aren't fast enough for such heavy transfers, sending data at 480 megabits per second. USB 3.0, on the other hand, will increase that tenfold to a whopping 4.8 gigabits per second. The fancy new cables should start hitting shelves and being used in devices around 2009 or 2010.

Wow, this is simply amazing. 4.8 GIGABITS per second...

For those not mathmatically inclined, that's 614.4 megabytes EVERY SECOND.


That's enough to move a hundred gigabyte hard drive in just a couple minutes.

[bja888]

Broken link?

Gonna be some expensive cables.

[mxyzptlk]

Link's not broken.

Also, as I read on a Digg page about it, Single Mode fiber isn't very expensive. More expensive than current copper wire, but definately affordable.

[FliesLikeABrick]

Broken link?

Gonna be some expensive cables.

nah, it is when technologies like this become commonplace that the prices of such things plummet.  Right now they're not terribly expensive, but they'll surely get cheaper

[a-4-year-old]

Now I need to change my pants

[LtKillroy]

Fiber optics is cool, they need to make it cheaper. Can't wait for the day when all wires are replaced by fiber optics...

[bja888]

There really isn't a speed limit to how fast data can go through fiber optics is there?

The limit is how fast the port can read it. Not to mention the color possibilities. With a 32-bit color base is more then Ethernet can send in one signal.

Are all computer parts going to be run by light? That would be a fast computer

Edit: For typeos

[FliesLikeABrick]

The theoretical max speed of data through a fiber-optic cable is the speed of light.  What limits the usefulness of it is the speed of the electronics at each end and how fast you can create rapid pulses of light through the fiber. 

[chrisgbk]

You also have to remember that the quoted speed is the burstable speed, and it is theoretical. Sustained data transfer rate in the real world will be much less than that.