Intel pushes USB 3 forward

News

Matt Grainger Aug 14 2008, 12:12pm

Vendor creates draft specification to enable interfacing with new technology

Chip giant Intel has released its Extensible Host Controller Interface (xHCI) draft specification for USB 3 devices.

The specification provides a standardised method for USB 3 host controllers to communicate with the USB 3 software stack.

The reason for this development is to allow the creation of an industry standard, which allows manufacturers to create USB 3 devices that are fully compatible with other technology. This in turn is very important to stimulate adoption by consumers, who are generally reluctant to invest in new technology that presents a slew of incompatible devices.

The software has been made available with free licence to all companies that have contributed to the project, including AMD, Dell, Microsoft and NEC.

“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 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.”