USB 3.0 custom drives and promotional flash drives are the new darling of the marketplace. Offering 10 times the read/write speeds of USB 2.0, these USB custom drives are poised to become the new standard in portable storage technology.
The new drives are still backwards compatible with USB 2.0 and USB 1.1 ports and devices. You won’t get the speed benefits of the USB 3.0 custom drives, however. That’s because the drives are supercharged with the new power, not the devices that use the older ports or connections.
USB 3.0 custom drives are a boon to computer users who move a large amount of data regularly. Where the USB 2.0 transfer rate is about 480 MB per second, the new custom USB drives can transfer at 4.8 GB a second. This is perfect for handling extremely large files such as raw digital photos, videos and music.
USB 3.0 is being spearheaded by Intel. As such, new computers began sporting USB 3.0 ports in early 2010. The Intel people believe that they’ll be able to achieve even higher speeds in the future, as the USB 3.0 flash drives are optimized for low power consumption and increased efficiency. The copper and optical connectivity built in is the secret to increasingly better performance in the years to come.
For those with a technical thirst for knowledge, USB 3.0 custom USB drives can achieve this increased performance because of the way an additional “bus” has been added to the existing USB 2.0 bus. Instead of four wires (power, ground and a pair for the data exchange), USB 3.0 drives have four more so there is an additional set of read/write connectors to improve data exchange. This, when combined with the retooling of the data interface to allow data to flow both ways at the same time (USB 2.0 could only flow data one direction at a time), is responsible for the added speed of “SuperSpeed” custom USB drive products.
According to Jeff Ravenscraft, a technology strategist for Intel, the digital era requires high-speed performance and a reliable connection. Disruptions and pauses in the transfer process can cause the loss of packets of data. USB 3.0 drives solve this issue while retaining USB 2.0’s ease of use.
While the arrival of USB 3.0 custom flash drives is now heralded, it wasn’t always so. AMD and NVIDIA challenged Intel, claiming the company was withholding some of the standards in the draft certification. If the charges were true, it would have given Intel an obvious competitive advantage in the marketplace.
Amazingly, the USB 3.0 custom drives still require just 500mA of power, which is the same as USB 2.0. This allows companies to continue to create devices with less power consumption, at least on a par with current computers. This is particularly important with smaller devices, which could use as many power conservation innovations as possible.
Will USB 3.0 catch on? While other technologies have come and gone, including serial ports and FireWire 400, USB 3.0 offers the perfect combination of additional power, backwards compatibility and flexibility. Customers with older computers won’t notice any performance change when they insert a USB 3.0 drive into their older systems. And if they have a new computer with USB 3.0 ports, they will enjoy amazing read/write speeds with their new USB 3.0 custom promotional drives.