Super Talent announces first USB 3.0 Flash Drive

USB 3.0 or SuperSpeed USB offers transfer speeds of up to ten times faster than the widely used Hi-Speed USB. Super Talent has announced the forthcoming availability of the first Flash drive to take advantage of these new speeds - the SuperSpeed USB 3.0 RAID Drive will be available in three capacity sizes and be backward compatible with earlier USB technologies.

Although we first mentioned the technology way back in 2007, the USB 3.0 specification wasn't actually released until November 2008 with product certification beginning in January 2009. Since then adoption news has been mixed.

ASUS recently announced support for USB 3.0 with the release of its new P7DP55DE-E Premium motherboard while Intel has said that it's not looking to support the standard until 2011.

Super Talent's SuperSpeed USB 3.0 RAID Drive uses "multiple pairs of differential serial data lines technology for optimal NAND flash performance" which should provide data transfer speeds of up to 200Mbps when connected to compatible ports. If used together with a separate UAS Protocol driver, uses can expect that to increase to 320Mbps.

The 95mm x 37mm x 13.5mm (3.74 x 1.46 x 0.53 inch), plug and play Flash drive will be available worldwide from December in 32Gb, 64Gb and 128Gb flavors. Prices to be confirmed.