It is no surprise that the USB 3.0 standard has seen such a rapid rise in popularity, considering that it can achieve read and write speeds ten times faster than those of its predecessor. In fact, even though actual platforms with this functionality built in are relatively few, a decent amount of external storage devices, add-in cards and controllers have been released. Most recently, the USB Implementers Forum took advantage of the opportunity provided by CeBIT 2010 to announce that 50 SuperSpeed USB 3.0 products, including notebooks and motherboards, had passed SuperSpeed USB compliance and certification testing.

The SuperSpeed USB 3.0 specification was developed by the USB 3.0 Promoter group, which is made up of Intel Corp., Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, NEC, Texas Instruments and ST-Ericsson. In addition to the significant improvement to data rates, the new USB standard also features a higher energy efficiency, increased power delivery and, of course, backwards compatibility with the numerous existing Hi-Speed USB products. The 50 certified products are seen as dependable solutions for addressing customer demand for fast storage.

Even though the USB 3.0 standard is not yet close to becoming mainstream, it has already made such devices as large-capacity external hard drives (HDDs), solid state drives (SSDs) or flash drives much more appealing. On USB 2.0, transferring large files takes a rather long time, making large-capacity devices less appealing and even less usable as backup solutions. The new specification removes this limitation.

“The wave of consumer products passing SuperSpeed USB compliance and certification this quarter is extraordinary,” Jeff Ravencraft, president and chairman, USB-IF, stated. “Enthusiasm behind this compelling advancement in USB technology is shared by consumers and manufacturers alike. As SuperSpeed USB is a viable consumer solution, product development, testing and certification are ramping up.”

The complete list of certified SuperSpeed USB 3.0 products may be found on the SuperSpeed USB product page.