14 DAY TRIAL // The SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface standard is one of the technologies that have seen the fastest rate of adoption, and it seems that a general idea of what the future holds has been synthesized in a recent report.
The USB 3.0 connectivity standard is the latest incarnation of the Universal Serial Bus technology and works ten times faster than USB 2.0.
For those interested in numbers, data is transferred at a theoretical maximum throughput of 4.8 Gbps, and this comes in addition to a better power efficiency.
Understandably, even though chipsets didn't have native support for it for quite some time, the connectivity technology still made it into motherboards via controller chips.
Of course, in addition to the ICs used by motherboards, each USB 3.0-connected device needs to have its own controller chip.
Considering how the standard's popularity is growing and growing, one can expect the number of shipments to practically skyrocket over the next few years.
On that note, Digitimes has reported what it believes will happen between the present time and the year 2015.
Controllers are expected to get cheaper and cheaper, until they actually become as cheap as USB 2.0 ones.
With this to drive PCs, mobile devices and consumer electronics to integrated the interface, the CAGR (compound annual growth rate) should reach 120% by 2015.
At first, PCs and storage systems will be the main factors behind the growing USB 3.0 sales, after which smartphones will progressively make it a common element by 2013 or 2014.
AMD's chipsets will natively support it by the end of the ongoing year, while Intel's own solution, the Chief River platforms, will come in the first half of 2012.
Ironically, as USB 3.0 gains traction, companies that have been making profits from selling SuperSpeed controller chips won't get to reap any rewards, since native chipset support will remove the need for said ICs.