AMD & Nvidia: Intel is Holding Back on USB 3.0 Specs

If you follow Everything USB you have read about USB 3.0 before. For a quick rundown the new specification is promising about a ten times speed increase compared to current USB 2.0 speeds. That would put the throughput for USB 3.0 in the 5 gigabits per second area. The USB 3.0 specification is expected to be done this year and products based on it are expected to hit market sometime in 2009 (more likely 2010).

Things are now off to a rocky start with the open host controller specifications for USB 3.0, which are being developed by Intel. AMD and Nvidia are alleging that Intel has working silicon for the open host controller portion, but is refusing to share the specification with other chipset and CPU makers. AMD and Nvidia say that the withholding of the specification will give Intel a market lead on USB 3.0 products of 6 or more months.

To be able to complete AMD and Nvidia say they will begin drafting a second open host controller specification of their own. This could very well mean that some USB 3.0 hardware might not be cross compatible with other hardware. Intel defends itself against the allegations by saying that it will share the specification for the open host controller when it is complete and as of now the specifications simply are not complete.