Intel on Thursday issued a press release detailing USB 3.0's software and hardware interface. And given that the Intel Developer Forum is just a week away, it's reasonable to expect the company will showcase USB 3.0 at the event.

USB 3.0's software and hardware interface, which Intel calls xHCI, will allow manufacturers and developers to ready their USB devices and computers for the 3.0-transition. The new interface will retain the same architecture as USB 2.0, meaning the ports will be backward compatible. Delivering 10 times the bandwidth of its predecessor, USB 3.0 will achieve speeds of up to 4.8 Gb/s, which translates to 600 megabytes per second.

USB 3.0 comes at good timing, given the increasing size of data files and storage devices consumers and professionals are dealing with today. Intel's move is also directly competing with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers upcoming speed boost of the FireWire data-transfer interface, expected the end of the year. 

(Photo credit: O'BrienDigital/Flickr )

Source : http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/08/intel-announces.html