USB 3.0 Ten Times Faster

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Intel confirmed this week that it's next generation of chipsets (Ivy Bridge) will also support the next generation of USB (Version 3.0). And all of it will be coming soon to a device near you as early as next year.

USB, which stands for the aptly named Universal Serial Bus, is the most widely used connection standard worldwide for everything from PC's to iPods. Intel made it ubiquitous in 2002 when it starting making chips with built in support. 

USB 3.0 is ten times faster than the present version of USB that we all use. This is a long overdue upgrade when you think about how much our computing habits have changed over the past nine years. Nine years ago, we were all cute little data piglets. Nowadays we are data hawgs who love to watch entire movies on our laptops, store thousands of pictures on our phones and keep every top 40 hit since the British Invasion earbud accessible at all times. 

I think we are all going to love USB 3.0 when it gets here.

What will we call the new flash drives? Punchlines welcome.

Renee Oricchio is a technology writer and former supervising news producer for CNN Financial News. She has been covering the computer industry since 1987. @oricchio