5 Gbps USB 3.0 comes closer to reality with new controller

USB 3.0 has been expected to "arrive" for a considerable amount of time, but due to the lengthy draft certification process, and general lack of pressure to get 3.0 "SuperSpeed" devices out in the market, it wasn't expected to become widespread until 2010. However, with NEC's new host controller, the arrival of the new USB standard could arrive soon.

The host controller is a chip which connects the host system such as a PC to external storage, peripherals or other systems, and NEC's new host controller (µPD720200) is based on the SuperSpeed USB standard which was finalized in November of 2008, more than eight years after the USB 2.0 spec was released.

The 3.0 spec promises transfer speeds of up to 5 gigabits per second with full backwards compatibility with 480 Mbps USB 2.0 (a.k.a., High Speed), 1.5 Mbps - 12 Mbps USB 1.0 (Low Speed to Full Speed). NEC says the new chip requires only 70 seconds to transfer 25 GB of video content to/from a Blu-ray disc, compared to the 14 minutes it would take with USB 2.0.