USB 3.0 has been officially dubbed SuperSpeed USB. It boasts transfer speeds of 4.8Gbps and it will move a 25GB HD file in about 70 seconds. Interestingly the architecture was given extra data lanes for more streamlined transfer speeds, instead of bursts, which makes it play better with camcorders etc. It will charge your gadgets faster too, by delivering more power than USB 2.0 and its new polling architecture also makes it more efficient.

Unfortunately, your old USB cables won’t deliver SuperSpeeds. You’ll have to have USB 3.0 gear from end-to-end to get the speeds, because the cables have extra pins. It is all backward compatible. The cables have three plugs: The standard one you all know, standard B which is the square one and mini B which is a weird two headed thing and micro. The first USB 3.0-equipped gadgets should arrive sometime in 2010.

[Gizmodo]