LaCie set for USB 3.0 2010 - will Apple lead, or follow?

Jonny Evans
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December 17, 2009
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USB 3.0 is emerging from the shadows with the first wave of peripherals supporting the high-speed standard set to emerge early next year - even while there’s no Mac (yet) equipped to exploit them.

Venerable storage manufacturer, LaCie, today revealed a partnership with silicon supplier, Symwave, with the aim of introducing “the world’s first USB 3.0 Dual-Drive RAID Storage Solution” in the first part of 2010.

LaCie’s 2Big USB 3.0, a dual-disk RAID 0/1 storage solution is powered by Symwave’s USB 3.0 standard-compliant dual SATA and RAID bridge controller. It promises to reach the highest throughput ever achieved in a USB 3.0 external storage product – setting a new standard in the dual disk market. The 2Big USB 3.0 will be available in up to 4TB capacities and is bundled with award-winning backup software for both Mac and PC users, LaCie informs.

Minh Lê, Marketing Director at LaCie, said, “LaCie intends to lead the market transition to USB 3.0 technology and will launch a full range of products in the coming months.”

The 2Big USB 3.0 will let users transfer a high-definition uncompressed video at speeds up to 275MB/s burst read transfer speed, or perform real time streaming and editing of multiple HD files simultaneously.

The device will be available in early 2010 and will be showcased at CES 2010, January 7-10, 2009.

With Apple clearly moving to favour USB above FireWire on its Macs, we’re curious now if USB 3.0 will be an element in next year’s expected Mac Pro refresh.

Comments (10)

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | December 17, 2009 - 5:40am

USB 3 is a natural transition of USB 2.0, and backwards compatable interface to boot.  The only reason why it isn't on most computers today is that Intel is dragging, trying to give its less mature LightPeak standard a chance to compete.

ggt (not verified) | December 17, 2009 - 5:41am

hopefully skip it and move straight to light peak

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | December 17, 2009 - 8:37am

USB sucks (slow, requires hub)....Where is FireWire1600?

jbwzrd213 (not verified) | December 17, 2009 - 9:25am

It isn't in any Mac yet but remember that the new MacBook Pros that are rumored to have the i7 chipset isn't out. Maybe they'll adopt them?

Here's to hoping!

dave (not verified) | December 17, 2009 - 9:27am

Really.

RoDe (not verified) | December 17, 2009 - 10:11am

Screw USB 3.0, straight to lightpeak please

Viktor (not verified) | December 17, 2009 - 10:15am

Theoretical speed of USB 2.0 is 480Mbits, Firewire 1 is 400 (firewire 2 is 800). Even that USB 2,0 is supposed to be 80Mbps faster than Firewire 1, if you transfer a huge file like 1Gb or 2 using USB 2.0 and Firewire 400, firewire is faster by 30 or 40% than USB 2.0. Also, you can get more power from Fire Wire than USB ports, you can daisy chain (like SCSI) in Firewire and USB can not. No mater how fast USB became, 3 or 4 what ever, they are domed because the overhead in the protocol. For slow devices, Blutooth will be the standard, and for the fastest ones, LightPeak.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | December 17, 2009 - 10:53am

For slow devices, Blutooth will be the standard, and for the fastest ones, LightPeak.

 

Bluetooth is slower than slow.  It 2 megabit in the best theoretical case, and often times much, much slower.  Transfering a photo from a camera over Bluetooth can take 20 minutes or more.

Lightpeak is still a big unknown.  Unlike USB, with zero licensing fees, Lightpeak is different.  Power consumption.  Cabling costs.  Ubiquity.

I've never been a USB fan, primarily due to the sucky performance of USB1 that was a horrid experience for many people.  But now it is clearly the market and price-point leader.  USB2 performance is adequate, and with USB3, both cost performance is on the top of the heap.

Lightpeak might be useful for replacing HDMI and eSATA and other very high bandwidth interfaces, but if the cost and power efficiency aren't on par with USB3, it is sure to stay in a distant second place to USB3.

DL (not verified) | December 17, 2009 - 11:00am

I believe that it is possible that Apple will adopt the USB 3.0 since USB is a standard across all computers.  However, with FireWire still being able to out-perform USB, they will not likely be getting rid of FireWire any time soon.  Just look at the ONE generation of the first Unibody MacBooks that were without the FireWire port.  People went berserk.  (Plus, transferring data from an older FireWire computer to a newer NON-FireWire computer is a pain in the butt.)

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | December 22, 2009 - 9:54pm

Light Peak Please

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_Peak