At least one more USB 3.0 device will be shown off during the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), now that PQI announced they will launch a new line of USB 3.0 flash drives.
The PQI Cool Drive U366 will be available in 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB versions, the company recently announced. The aluminum-cased USB keys should receive quite a bit of attention during CES, as attendees and journalists from around the world look for faster, sleeker PC products and peripherals.
The PQI USB 3.0 drives will have read speeds up to 97MB/sec, but the write speeds aren't yet known.
Not many companies have announced USB 3.0 products thus far, as the technology is still very new.
USB 3.0 has transfer speeds up to 10 times faster than USB 2.0, but very few PCs, notebooks and operating systems can support USB 3.0 as of now. Even though just a small number of PC users have USB 3.0 support, the technology is still developing, and consumers have a lot to look forward to.
Last month, Super Talent launched a USB 3.0 key, with many manufacturers expected to follow suit in the near future. OCZ and Symwave announced that they are working together on a new line of USB 3.0-powered external solid state drives, even though both companies understand it will take some time before the drives can find a market.
One of the major barriers facing manufacturers is that Intel most likely won't support USB 3.0 until 2011, which could severely slow down the adoption of the new standard. Nonetheless, we should see a plethora of new USB 3.0 product announcements as CES rolls through Vegas January 7-10th.
