It's an eventful week for USB 3.0 with several companies launching products that utilize the new interface. Kingston has begun shipping its first USB 3.0 flash drives, the DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 series. The new line boasts peak read and write rates of 80MB/s and 60MB/s over USB 3.0, or about 30MB/s and 30MB/s over USB 2.0.

In testing, a 1 hour 44 minute video (3.9GB) was written to the drive in 1 minute 13 seconds. A 2 hour 23 minute DVD (4.4GB) transferred to the drive at 1 minute and 23 seconds. The DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 is currently available with a five-year warranty for a suggested retail price of $89 (16GB), $138 (32GB), and $278 (64GB).


LaCie has launched its "2big USB 3.0" two bay NAS. The enclosure is sold with 2TB or 4TB of storage at $349.99 and $579.99, with maximum transfer rates of 190MB/s and 160MB/s read/write. The drives can be configured in RAID 0, 1, or JBOD and the company throws in niceties like backup software and a USB 3.0 PCIe card.

Meanwhile, DisplayLink yesterday introduced DL-1000 and DL-3000 series USB 3.0 chip platforms "for next-generation displays, docking stations and other integrated devices." The new silicon will enable creations such as USB or Ethernet-powered monitors, USB to HDMI/DVI/VGA/DisplayPort adapters, and much more.