Intel’s USB 3.0

Intel has provided chipset makers with a draft specification for a USB 3.0. Intel has unveiled what it calls the “Extensible Host Controller Interface (xHCI)” draft specification to support USB 3.0. Intel’s announcement was supported by other industry giants such as Microsoft, Dell and NEC. The way it should work, Intel should share this technology and AMD, VIA and Nvidia would get the chance to make its own USB 3.0. The statement also tries to dispel rumors that Intel is “holding back the specification” from others in the industry.

“The future of computing and consumer devices is increasingly visual and bandwidth intensive,” said Phil Eisler, corporate vice president at Intel rival AMD. “Lifestyles filled with [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.”

The allegation really concerns the Intel host controller specification used by chip manufacturers, explained Nick Knupffer, an Intel employee. “The Intel host controller spec is expected to be unveiled to the industry as soon as possible, in the second half of the year,” Knupffer wrote.
Intel said it expects to release a revised xHCI 0.95 specification in the fourth quarter, and the technology should become widely available in 2010.

Some companies apparently were willing to band together and create their own host controller interface, fearing that Intel would delay releasing the spec in order to gain competitive advantage. According to NVIDIA and AMD, Intel has working silicon, meaning the open host controller portion is mature and working, yet Intel is refusing to give the specifications to other processor and chipset makers. AMD and NVIDIA say that by withholding the open host controller specifications that Intel is basically giving itself a market advantage of six to nine months because of the time lag between receiving the host controller specifications by other CPU and chipset makers and getting product to the marketplace.

In June, Intel spokesman Nick Knupffer said on his blog: “The sooner USB 3.0 hits the market, the sooner all you readers will be flooding your devices and hard drives with insanely large files requiring masses amounts of computational resources, improving your lives, and making you pleased that you bought a quad-core processor.”