Benefits of USB 3.0 And What Makes it Different

Benefits of USB 3.0
And What Makes it Different
USB 3.0 is the third major version of
the Universal Serial Bus (USB) standard
for interfacing computers and
electronic devices
USB (Universal Serial Bus) is a universal connection used to connect electronic
devices (like digital cameras, external hard drives, printers, etc.) to a computer.
The idea was to replace all of the different connection types needed
for different devices with one easy to use connector.
A number of changes have been implemented in USB 3.0 to satisfy the
increased demands of external devices.
Transfer Rate
USB 3.0 adds a new transfer type
called SuperSpeed or SS, 5 Gbit/s
(electrically, it is more similar to
PCI Express 2.0 but USB 3.0 have
Serial AT Attachment)
Data Transfer
• USB 3.0 introduces full duplex data
transfer.
• Two of five lanes are reserved
for transmitting data, while another
pair is dedicated to receiving data,
meaning that USB 3.0 can read and
write data simultaneously
at full speed.
• Previous USB specifications did not
support bi-directional data transfer.
Power
• The unit load has been increased
to 150 mA & a configured device
can draw up to six unit loads, which
adds up to 900 mA.
• This exceeds USB 2.0 by 80% and
leads to faster recharging or
powering of more than four
devices from a single hub.
• In addition, the minimum device
operating voltage was dropped
from 4.4 V to 4 V, which saves
energy.
Power Management
• USB 3.0 suspends device polling,
which is replaced by interrupt
driven protocol.
• As a result, idle devices won’t
experience a power drain since
a signal from the device is
required to initiate data transfer.
• With USB 2.0 the host controller
used to look for active transfers,
slowly draining power.
• Briefly, USB 3.0 supports idle,
sleep, and suspend states, as
well as link-, device-, and
function-level power management.
Physical Appearance
The above described specifications are also represented in the physical
appearance of USB 3.0. While the cable was previously described to be
thicker because it contains four more wires than USB 2.0, this appears
not to be the case now.
The plug, however, is a dead giveaway for USB 3.0. It contains an
additional set of connectors, as illustrated in the above image.
USB 3.0 drive is like a thicker
water pipe, where more
information can travel at
a faster rate
Whereas USB 2.0 drive is a thinner
water pipe where downloads
are slower
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