Tech News and Reviews
Posts tagged USB 3.0
ASUS introduces O!Play HD2, first networked media player with USB 3.0
Mar 4th
Chances are you’re not a part of the SuperSpeed revolution yet, and that’s okay. It’s early days yet, but ASUS is doing its part to make that transition to USB 3.0 a little more appealing with its O!Play HD2. A follow-up to the earlier O!Play models, the HD2 offers what looks to be plenty of connectivity options (we’re seeing USB, memory cards, and eSATA) and promises a “wealth of cloud infotainment.” ASUS isn’t sharing any more details than that right now, but we’re going to try to track this guy down on the CeBIT show floor and, when we find, it you can be sure we won’t spare the hard questions.
ASUS N82 and N61 join the USB 3.0 laptop party
Feb 4th
We’re kind of starting to figure out ASUS’ naming scheme — E is for Easy, and N is for eNtertainment, jolly good. In other self-evident news, Engadget Chinese is the place to go if you want the lowdown on happenings in China and its nearby states. Joining HP’s Envy 15 in the USB 3.0-sporting ranks will soon be the familiar 16-inch ASUS N61 and the seemingly brand spanking new N82 14-incher. See the galleries below for the eye candy, but keep it here for specs. Core i5 and i7 CPUs will populate the role of orchestrator inside, while ATI and NVIDIA discrete graphics options will also be made available when these make their imminent Taiwan debut. In live demonstrations, the one USB 3.0 port (yes, you only get one) was shown to be three times as fast as USB 2.0, so not quite reaching its theoretical superiority, but hardly an unwelcome improvement. Let’s hope for quick global distribution following the Taiwanese launch, which is slated for the middle of this month.
USB 3.0-infused DisplayLink products coming in 2010
Dec 26th
DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort may be enjoying the spoils right now, but the world’s most popular port may just give ‘em a run for their collective dollars by the end of next year. DisplayLink, which enables monitors to receive signals via USB instead of through one of the more conventional cables, has been mildly successful with USB 2.0 at the helm, but a whole new world is about to open up with the introduction of USB 3.0. As you’ve no doubt seen by now, the third iteration offers up over ten times the bandwidth of v2.0, which would obviously allow for great resolution support when channeling video. In reality, USB 3.0 is the first USB protocol that could support a legitimate high-def video stream, and it’s expected that a prototype device will be shown at CES next month transmitting content at up to 4.8 gigabits per second. In theory, at least, USB 3.0-enabled DisplayLink would allow vast 30-inch panels to be connected to netbooks via USB without having to rely on a sub-native resolution, but then again, said netbooks will probably need a GPU with a bit more oomph than the current Ion can provide. Not like that’ll be an issue for long, though.
Buffalo busts out its first 12x Blu-ray burner, powered by USB 3.0
Nov 27th
Sure, your computer doesn’t have a USB 3.0 plug, and there’s no such thing as a 12x Blu-ray disc for mass consumption just yet, but we shouldn’t let those pesky details get in the way of progress. Buffalo just announced the BR-X1216U3, which is the “world’s first” (er, not exactly, but anyways…) 12x Blu-ray burner, and which incidentally pulls off its wondrous feats through the power of USB 3.0. Of course, it’s backward compatible with USB 2.0, for burn speeds up to 7x, but with 12x on the table that’s just slumming it. The drive is out now in Japan for 39,100 yen (about $448 US).
Super Talent introduces world’s first USB 3.0 flash drive
Nov 5th
USB 3.0 devices are just now starting to peek their heads out at retail, and it looks as if Super Talent is doing its darnedest to not be left out of the spotlight. Said company has just introduced what looks to be the planet’s first USB 3.0 thumb drive (or “RAIDDrive,” as it were), promising transfer rates of up to 320MB/sec when relying on a separate UAS Protocol driver with a USB 3.0 port. If you’re using a stock USB 3.0 socket, you’ll see speeds as high as 200MB/sec, while those bold enough to slam this into a USB 2.0 connector will see it slow to USB 2.0 speeds. There’s no mention of a price or release date, but it should ship relatively soon in 32GB, 64GB and 128GB flavors.
USB 3.0 and SATA 6G put to good use: benchmarks
Oct 31st
The fine folks at both HotHardware and PC Perspective have run the new ASUS P7P55D-E Premium motherboard through its paces, which has the particular distinction of handling both USB 3.0 and the up-and-coming SATA 6G through controllers by NEC and Marvell, respectively. Lucky for us, both sites’ tests came to similar conclusions. The Seagate Barracuda XT SATA 6G drive has almost zero improvement over SATA 3G, other than in some burst speeds due to the fancy cache on the 6G — the bottleneck here is the drive, not the controller. Meanwhile, USB 3.0 has speeds that are roughly 5 to 6 times faster than USB 2.0 with the same drive, a huge win for fans of external storage the world over. Perhaps even better news is that an ASUS US36 controller card with USB 3.0 and SATA 6G support is a mere $30, so this stuff is already basically within reach to the average desktop user.
