Intel has announced the details for its next-generation USB 3.0 technology, which they have called “superSpeed.” The updated specifications for the USB 3.0 software and hardware interface provide a standardised method for USB 3.0 controllers to communicate with SuperSpeed USB software.

The updated specifications no give manufacturers and software developers something to work with as they wait for the changeover. The specifications also aid in establishing interoperability between devices from multiple manufacturers, which is an important step in terms of consumer adoption of USB 3.0.

The Intel xHCI draft specification revision 0.9 supports compatibility among various implementations of USB devices, which will make it easier to develop software support for the industry, Intel said. The documentation includes descriptions of the of the registers and data structures used to interface between system software and the hardware, which are developed to be compatible with the USB 3.0 specification under development by thw USB 3.0 Promoter Group.

“The future of computing and consumer devices is increasingly visual and bandwidth-intensive,” said Phil Eisler, AMD corporate vice president and general manager of the Chipset Business Unit.

“Lifestyles filled with HD (high definition) media and digital audio demand quick and universal data transfer. USB 3.0 is an answer to the future bandwidth need of the PC platform. AMD believes strongly in open industry standards, and therefore is supporting a common xHCI specification,” he added.

USB 3.0 is Intel’s next-gen USB standard, providing 5 Gbps (gigabits per second) throughput, a tenfold speed increase over the current USB 2.0 standard. Brian O’Rourke, an In-Stat analyst, noted that USB 3.0 reduced the amount of power the USB consumes by limiting the number of times a host contacts a USB device, such as an external hard disk drive.

With devices featuring USB 2.0 numbering around 2 billion, industry support is vital.

“As with the previous versions of USB, it does have industry-wide support throughout the PC ecosystem,” O’Rourke noted.

SuperSpeed USB will be aimed initially at high-end devices that need increased bandwidth, including PCs, external hard drives and next-gen mobile phones, he said.

“These devices are increasingly offering more storage, and so [they] need a faster way to get data on and off the device. There will likely be devices that use USB that will not need all the bandwidth that SuperSpeed provides, including mice, keyboards and printers. However, over time as SuperSpeed USB becomes less expensive, more devices will add it,” O’Rourke said.