Intel nearly ready to play nice with USB 3.0

Reference board to include host

Speculation is rapidly mounting that Intel will finally announce its first motherboard featuring USB 3.0.

The chip giant has been accused of dragging it heels over the latest iteration of the Universal Serial Bus, and the oufit's relationship with the governing body for the standard has been difficult, to say the least.

A number of pundits are now predicting that Intel's developer shindig will see the unveiling of the first USB Superspeed-compliant motherboard, in the shape of  the Cougar Point reference design.

The rumours have grown in the telling since appearing on the Chinese language news outlet Commercial Times so can be taken with a hefty pinch of salt.

USB 3.0 is backward-compatible with USB 2.0 hardware, and is capable of transferring data at up to 4.8Gb/s

Intel has been touting its own forthcoming 10Gb/s Light Peak fibre optic technology despite no-one else on the planet being the all that interested.