USB 3.1 Accelerates to 10 Gigabits Per Second
The ubiquitous USB standard is due for an update, and it’s about to get a big one. The USB 3.0 Promoter Group said on Thursday that it has finalized the specification for USB version 3.1, an upgrade that will dramatically increase its data-transfer speeds. Where USB 3.0 delivers transfer rates of five gigabits per second, USB 3.1 will deliver speeds of 10Gbps. A nice bump up in performance, and one that matches that of Intel’s Thunderbolt standard — but only for a short while. Before year’s end, Intel will roll out the next-generation version of its Thunderbolt standard, which supports bidirectional data transfers of up to 20Gbps.