San Francisco (CA) – Intel announced the formation of the USB 3.0 promoters group, a consortium that aims to create a "superspeed personal USB interconnect."

The first members of the promoter group - HP, Intel Microsoft, NEC Corporation, NXP Semiconductors and Texas Instruments - said that USB 3.0 will deliver more than ten times the data transfer bandwidth of USB 2.0, which tops out at 480 Mb/s. The new interface will be designed to be used in consumer electronics and mobile applications to be able to deal with digital media file sizes that are likely to exceed 25 GB.

Intel said that USB 3.0 will be based on current USB technology and ports and cabling will be backwards compatible; however version 3.0 will offer enhancements for better protocol efficiency and lower power consumption. The development group will also integrate an upgrade path to optical capabilities for USB.

A completed USB 3.0 specification is expected to be released in the first half of 2008.