The End of FireWire? USB 3.0 Announced With Blazing Fast Transfer Speed

With the dawning of USB 3.0, the computing world will be able to run much faster… and probably without any FireWire.

In the first major update to the USB specification in eight years, the USB Implementers Forum is slated to announce on Monday that USB 3.0 is approximately 10 times faster than USB 2.0. For a point of reference, you should be able to transfer an entire Blu-ray disc in about a minute. This update makes USB 3.0, with a 4.8 Gbps transfer rate, 6 times faster than FireWire 800, 10 times faster than USB 2.0, and about 400 times faster than the ancient USB 1.0. USB 3.0 also boasts greater power efficiency (so it shouldn’t be as harmful to run USB hardware on your laptop anymore) and better power output, so that you can charge your electronic devices even faster. Just like USB 2.0 was to USB 1.0, it will also be backwards compatable so that you can still run USB 3.0 cable into your older ports (albeit at the older port’s speed). With Apple seeming to take a step away from FireWire and USB 3.0 slated to hit the markets in the next year or two, this could mean the end for FireWire supported devices. Via wired