What is USB 3.0?

Photo via USB Implementers Forum, Inc.

USB 3.0 or "SuperSpeed" USB, is the newest generation of USB interface. And, for Polyline's demographic, that's probably the most important thing you have to know about USB 3.0; it's super fast.

Basically, the "old" USB (a.k.a. USB 2.0) cable had four wires: ground, power, data in and data out. USB 3.0 has double that (8 wires) so you have two wires covering data coming in and two for data going out. This means you can, theoretically, get up to 4.8Gbps in transfer speeds. (I know you content creation professionals are excited about this!)

The extra power wire also increases the maximum bus power. That means those power-hungry devices (like portable hard drives) are getting more power and that battery-powered devices (like cameras or "readers") that can be charged using the USB should charge more quickly.

Here's the cool thing. Let's say you're interested in purchasing a LaCie Rugged USB 3.0, but your computer doesn't have the proper SuperSpeed USB connection. You can still use the Rugged USB 3.0! You won't get the super cool benefits of USB 3.0, but it will work the same as a USB 2.0 connection. So, when you're ready to upgrade your computer so it has one or more of these connections, you'll already have a hard drive that can satisfy your need for speed.

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