Apple may adopt USB 3.0 standard on future Macs

Intel and USB 3.0Apple embraced Thunderbolt for good, but that does not prevent it from adopting other industry standards as well, such as USB 3.0. And exactly what can happen, according to the VR-Zone.

Many people were disappointed with Apple's lack of interest in standard 3.0, but thanks to a “little bird”, we heard that the company still sees USB 3.0 as a future possibility for its products. When and how it happens is not something we know, but we think it will be before Intel integrates the standard into its chips.

The USB 3.0 standard, in addition to being backward compatible, reaches speeds of up to 5Gbps, ten times more than the standard 2.0 and do not forget that it also raises the power of the interface to 100W.

Also according to the news, only now the USB 3.0 standard has reached an acceptable price for Ma (between US $ 2 and US $ 3, when purchased in large quantities); just to compare, the Thunderbolt standard costs between $ 10 and $ 15. Intel has already committed to the new standard and future chipsets (Ivy Brige) will have native technology support.

What sounds strange in this story is the whole issue of Apple adopting the standard before the arrival of Ivy Bridge chips Steve Jobs even related the takeoff of the standard with Intel support. In addition, Mac mini, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro were updated not long ago, we will probably only see another update for them in the first half of 2012. This leaves us with two options: or we will see the new USB 3.0 standard appearing with the new Mac Pro , or next to that new Mac unlike anything we know.

Regardless of the cost issue (which tends to the USB 3.0 side), I find Apple interesting to support both standards. Certainly, for professionals who work with large files (videos, photos, etc.), Thunderbolt is quite a solution. For “common users”, USB 3.0 is more than enough. I venture to say that the Thunderbolt + USB 3.0 duo is the new version of the old FireWire 800 + USB 2.0 duo. If that happens, we, the users, have only a win.

(via MacRumors)