Intel Releases USB 3.0 Specs For Free: Industry Breathes Easier
Until very recently I had a PC with a USB 1.1 interface which meant any large data transfer usually allowed me to take a hike into the countryside, slaughter some innocent bunnies, return home, pop them in a pot and make a cuppa before the transfer had finished. I’m now the proud owner of a PC with USB 2.0 ports and now I just transfer data for the speedy novelty factor. Yesterday, Intel got the fire burning under USB 3.0 by releasing the draft specification that will allow hardware and software makers the chance to get ahead of the curve and kickstart the market for super speedy peripherals. The xHCI draft specification provides a standardised method for USB 3.0 host controllers to communicate with the USB 3.0 software stack. The most important aspect is that the Extensible Host Controller Interface (xHCI) draft specification revision v0.9 [a v0.95 version will be out in Q4] is royalty-free as Intel really wants to ensure that USB 3.0, or SuperSpeed USB, become dominant fast. It also ends fears that Intel was withholding its specs and that we were going to face a split in the USB 3.0 specification, resulting in competing standards and products. And we all know how much we love those. According to Intel: “This specification describes the registers and data structures used to interface between system software and the hardware, and are developed to be compatible with the USB 3.0 specification being developed by the USB 3.0 Promoter Group. The Intel xHCI draft specification revision 0.9 is being made available under RAND-Z (royalty free) licensing terms to all USB 3.0 Promoter Group and contributor companies that sign an xHCI contributor agreement.” Those coming out in support of the draft release include rival AMD, Microsoft, Dell and others. For us punters, SuperSpeed USB means 10 times the bandwidth of USB 2.0. [Intel] PC USB intel
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Original post by nafiz