14 DAY TRIAL // Though the USB 3.0 interface standard was finalized months ago, native chipset support is scarce, if at all present, but AMD has already begun preparations for integrating the interface in its chipsets and, now, it seems Intel is also planning on doing something on its Cougar point motherboard reference design.
The SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface standard is the latest generation of USB connectivity to be defined.
Compared to the Hi-Speed USB 2.0 standard, this newer technology has a theoretical maximum transfer rate that is ten times higher.
This means, in numbers, that while USB 2.0 ports can communicate at up to 480 Mbps, an USB 3.0 connector can go all the way up to 4.8 Gbps (more or less 5Gbps).
Advanced Micro Devices is already putting effort into giving its next generation of chipsets, or some of them at least, native support for this standard.
Now, according to a report published by Digitimes, Intel is also going to launch Cougar Point reference motherboard designs with USB 3.0 at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) 2010.
This implication was supposedly originally made within another report made by the Chinese-language Commercial Times.
Such a move should allow the adoption of the USB 3.0 technology to be made at a much faster pace and, eventually, lead to it reaching the mainstream market and taking the place of USB 2.0.
The difference between this move and what AMD is doing, however, is that the Cougar Point models will have USB 3.0 by means of a host controller, whereas the Sunnyvale, California company will add the functionality to its chipsets.
What remains to be seen is how soon the new hardware will come to market. Nevertheless, as this is still just a rumor, end-users are advised to take it with the obligatory grain of salt, though it is, in the end, just a matter of time before Intel joins the USB 3.0 movement, Light Peak or no.