As Intel evidently won’t be offering USB 3.0 as chipset integrated feature until 2012, AMD is taking the opportunity to slap its nemesis in the face by integrating USB 3.0 into its upcoming mobile PC platform. The said platform is code-named Hudson D1 which serves as the southbridge chip for Ontario and Llano APUs – AMD’s CPU/GPU fusion. It is slated to ship in Q4 2010, and will primarily target at thin-notebooks and notebooks.
Rumor has it that AMD is in talks with NEC to license its proven USB 3.0 chipset in order to save R&D money into developing its own solution. NEC seems like an ideal partner as the fab manufacturer has the capacity to ramp up production as soon as orders are received. The talk comes at a time when Intel at last released xHCI spec 1.0 which finalizes the details of the register-level interface for host controller driver in software. The move by AMD will undoubtedly drive the cost per unit even lower to perhaps under $2, and will likely create an incentive for more first-tier manufacturers to adopt SuperSpeed USB.

Storage maven inXtron adds to its line of USB 3.0 devices with the Orbit. Not to be confused with the Altec Lansing Orbit speaker, this Orbit is a 2.5 hard drive enclosure built for two 2.5″ drives. They’ve developed this closely with Gigabyte, who is leading the way with many USB 3.0 implementations; and Silicon Image who is providing its SteelVine Series 3 Core storage technology. These drives can be configured to run in RAID configurations 0 and 1 as well as JBOD. RAID 1 mirroring is an ideal use for this device as a great method to handle drive failures for critical data. Unfortunately, even the best RAID 1 device sacrifices speed for security. Duplicating the data across disks is done real-time and can effectively take twice as long as normal.
RAID 0 is where this drive will really smoke. The USB 3.0 bandwidth can really be exploited with the dual write, striping operations permitted by RAID 0. USB 3.0 should provide plenty of power to be able to run both drives solely with bus power. There’s not much more detail at this time so release may be far off. Hopefully no more than a few months will pass before we can get our hands on one.

On the heels of the notice of Gigabyte’s mega-volume announcement, Asus has shot back with its own pedigree and the breadth of their commitment to innovation. The company has definitely been a major player in the adoption of new technologies and new form factors. Gigabyte may hold the title of most, but Asus asserts, and we agree, they have always been first. First motherboard with USB 3.0 certification from the USB-IF, first nettop with USB 3.0, first to integrate USB 3.0 into their full range of products, not a long list, but definitely an impressive reminder of how hard they have been working to make the best product possible.
Asus has always had our loyalty since the early days of consumer PCs. We’ve gladly ordered products that were the first and best in: tweaked motherboards, Dual CPU capability, SLI support, integrated IO systems, small form factor machines, the EEE PC. That list goes on quite a bit longer and reads like a greatest-hits list of personal computing. We expect sharks with lasers to be built in to their next system at this rate. If you have a few days, try a search for Asus on our site, and you can see for yourself how often we find them newsworthy. One thing is for sure, “new” and “hotness” are words that will be associated with Asus for a long time to come.