Disagreement surrounding USB 3.0

General USB 3.0 specifications have been known for some time now and Intel has already carried out some public demonstrations; however, the final specifications, which are largely borrowed from another "open" standard, PCI Express, cannot be revealed before 2009 while the first USB 3.0 marked products are expected out next year.

AMD and Nvidia claim that Intel – which is developing this standard and will then give out free licenses – already has functional circuits but it is holding back crucial information concerning the "open" host controller although it is already or almost ready. This is supposedly to delay the arrival of USB 3.0 chipsets from its rivals. On the other side, the Santa Clara giant is saying that is still has some work to do on specifications before revealing them, without which the risk of incompatibility will be higher.

AMD, Nvidia, VIA and others in the industry are threatening to develop a common set of alternative specifications to USB 3.0 which will be introduced in parallel to those of Intel. The first meeting devoted to the subject is moreover planned for next week. Let’s just hope that it won’t go this far and that the different parties quickly find some common ground. Otherwise, a large number of USB 3.0 peripherals will have to rely on retro-compatibility with USB 2.0 to function with standard speeds introduced in April 2000.