Even with Intel not expected to support the technology on its chipsets until at least 2011, USB 3.0 may still garner significant adoption this year -- and Asus wants to play a part in it. We've already seen USB 3.0 connectors show up on several or its higher-end motherboards, EeeBox nettops and digital media players. But the manufacturer not only prides itself on supporting the standard across multiple product lines, they claim their execution is better than the rest too.
Asus contends that not all USB 3.0 implementations are created equal, suggesting other motherboard makers often require the user to make a choice between true USB 3.0 operation or sacrificing overall system performance by disabling features like multi-GPU operation. In contrast, the company says a "unique" PCI Express x4 PLX bridge chip on its boards allows it to boost the speed of USB 3.0 data transmission by almost 75% compared to its rivals.
Eager to continue pushing USB 3.0 Asus also provided full details on two upcoming laptops based on the Calpella platform that will support the new standard, the 14-inch N82JV-VX020V and 16-inch N61JA-JX008V. Both systems are targeted at multimedia enthusiasts, and as such will include features like AMD or Nvidia discrete graphics, 1366x768 resolution displays, an HDMI output and a large 500GB hard drive.
