Back on November 12, 2008, the networking, communications and information technology industries witnessed the announcement of a new Universal Serial Bus specification that would radically change the rate at which data is transferred between compatible devices over the next several years to come. That standard officially became known as SuperSpeed USB 3.0, and it has yet to enter the hands of billions of global consumers on a broad scale. While its adoption rates prior to the turn of the decade are likely to remain suppressed, several manufacturers are attempting to raise public consumer awareness through press introductions of various add-on peripherals.

Vantec Thermal Technologies, located in Fremont, California, has just announced the upcoming availability of two hard drive enclosures based on the SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface. The products are suited for each form factor –  a PCI-Express x1 card and an ExpressCard/34 adapter – and are based off the company’s NexStar 3 Hard Drive enclosures. As far as superficiality is concerned, they will be offered in Onyx Black and will boast a mirror-polished finish.





Vantec 2-port SuperSpeed USB 3.0 PCI-e Host Card (Coming Soon)




Vantec NexStar 3 SuperSpeed USB 3.0 lineup (Coming Soon)


In perspective, SuperSpeed USB 3.0 runs at a blazing 5Gbps (620Mbps) which is theoretically ten times faster than the aging USB 2.0 and four-hundred times faster than the deceased USB 1.1 specification. Vantec has continued to expand its popular NexStar 3 line with support for more interfaces, including those drives equipped with the new SATA III 6Gbps standard. Its new line of external hard drive enclosures will provide more raw data throughput to the host device with the introduction of the SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface.

The company’s upcoming hard drive enclosures will be made available sometime in Q1 2010. Furthermore, we can expect several showcase product demonstrations from Vantec and many other peripheral hardware manufacturers at CES between January 7th and 10th.