USB 3.1 spotted at Computex on Asus and MSI motherboards

[Scorpus]

It's been a while since the USB 3.1 specification was finalized in August last year, but now we're starting to see some real-world implementations. At Computex 2014 I spotted three motherboards packing USB 3.1, giving system builders 10 Gbps of bandwidth and greater power ouput than what USB 3.0 provides.

The three motherboards on show were from Asus and MSI, both of whom are using custom implementations as the Z97 chipset - which these boards use - doesn't support USB 3.1. From what I understand, an extra chip on the board (an ASMedia ASM1142 controller in the case of MSI's board) uses a few PCIe lanes to provide USB 3.1's bandwidth.

The actual ports on the board appear identical to USB ports we've seen before, so there's no reversible connector just yet. In fact on Asus' motherboards, which didn't highlight the specific USB 3.1 ports, I couldn't discern which of the ports were 10 Gbps USB.

Both MSI and Asus say these boards aren't quite ready for a public release, and at the moment there isn't a lot of point in having USB 3.1 capabilities: just like SATA Express, thare aren't any products using USB 3.1 on the market.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/57011-usb-31-spotted-at-computex-on-asus-and-msi-motherboards.html

 

[DDG4005]

I totally forgot about this technology. It'll be interesting to what devices featuring USB 3.1 ports will be available.

 

[Puiu]

I just want them to release the new port so we can finally ditch this broken one.

 

[veLa]

Now introducing the new port that makes the USB format obsolete.

 

[Geforcepat]

Need to make them white so we know what we're getting/or which ones to plug into.

 

[Guest]

So why would manufacturers use the new usb port (reversible) vs thunderbolt. They are both new and incompatible with everything.

 

[cliffordcooley]

So why would manufacturers use the new usb port (reversible) vs thunderbolt. They are both new and incompatible with everything.

Why would you say that?

http://www.usb.org/developers/events/USB_3_1_DD/

USB 3.1 Developers Day
The USB 3.1 Specification adds a SuperSpeed USB 10Gbps speed mode that uses a more efficient data encoding and will deliver more than twice the effective data through-put performance of existing SuperSpeed USB over enhanced, fully backward compatible USB connectors and cable. The specification extends the existing SuperSpeed mechanical, electrical, protocol and hub definition while maintaining compatibility with existing USB 3.0 software stacks and device class protocols as well as with existing 5 Gbps hubs and devices and USB 2.0 products.

 

[Guest]

Im saying when they introduce the new cables. nothing is compatible without an adapter.