WD and NEC Jointly Developing SuperSpeed USB 3.0-Compliant Storage

Just like LaCie and Symwave announced yesterday that they would be promoting the new SuperSpeend USB 3.0 standard by showcasing a USB 3.0 dual-disk RAID storage solution at CES 2010, Western Digital and NEC Electronics also revealed their collaboration plans for the development of high-speed USB 3.0 storage solutions. The two will be working on a UASP (USB Attached SCSI Protocol) that will enable the creation of hard drives with very high performance capabilities and mass-storage capacities.

“The wide adoption of external storage, for both expanding and backing up internal computer storage, highlights the need for faster interface transfer rates. The USB 3.0 interface offers a significant advance in data transfer speed,” said Robert Caddy, Jr., vice president of engineering for WD’s Branded Products Group. “We are pleased to collaborate with NEC Electronics as a leading supplier of USB host devices in the introduction of USB 3.0 technology to the storage market.”

The two will combine the UASP industry standard, which overcomes the performance boundaries of the Bulk Only Transfer (BOT) protocol (used in USB 2.0), with NEC's USB 3.0 xHCI (eXtensible Host Controller Interface). The xHCI was introduced back in May as the first USB 3.0 host controller. The UASP driver will support the UASP mass storage protocol and enhance data transfer by 30%.

“Partnering with WD enables us to combine our USB transfer technology with WD’s data storage technology and provide added value to our customers,” said Masao Hirasawa, deputy general manager, Home Multimedia Division, NEC Electronics Corporation. “Starting with the new HDDs, WD and NEC Electronics are working together as the industrial leaders to expand USB 3.0 marketplace offerings with the highest quality and performance solutions while speeding time to market.”

As people with reasonable hardware knowledge already know, the USB 3.0 interface can, while boasting high power efficiency, reach data transfer speeds of 5Gbps. This speed is ten times faster than that achieved by the USB 2.0 interface and will benefit a wide range of products, such as PCs, consumer electronics, appliances and PC peripherals.