The famous Taiwanese motherboard maker ASUS has announced a large number of USB 3.1-enabled motherboards as well as two ASUS USB 3.1 cards. The new USB 3.1 motherboard line supports Intel processors only as of now and includes models that cover the entire market from high-end models to budget-oriented ones.
USB 3.1 is the latest USB standard and it doubles the speed offered by USB 3.0 (5 Gbit/sec) to 10 Gbit/sec. In addition the new ASUS motherboards make use of the company’s USB 3.1 Boost technology that further increases speed. According to ASUS during tests of the technology ASUS engineers were able to reach sequential read/write speeds of 854.6 MB/sec and 863.9 MB/sec, which is much faster than other competing USB 3.1 solutions.
Joe Hsieh, ASUS Corporate Vice President and General Manager, Motherboard and Desktop System Business Unit, said: “As the world’s number-one motherboard brand, we lead by providing the very latest technology for ASUS customers to enjoy. We worked closely with ASMedia Technology Inc to maximize USB 3.1 performance on both ASUS motherboards and our USB 3.1 Card products, ensuring that ASUS customers enjoy the very fastest data transfers from the new standard – and before anyone else!”
Twelve ASUS motherboards have dual Type-A USB 3.1 ports built in for instant 10 Gbit/sec connectivity. Products with two USB 3.1 sockets onboard are signified with a ‘/USB 3.1’ suffix and include X99-Pro/USB 3.1, X99-A/USB 3.1 (Transfer Express), X99-A/USB 3.1, X99-E WS/USB 3.1, Z97-Deluxe/USB 3.1, Z97-Pro (Wi-Fi ac)/USB 3.1, Z97-A/USB 3.1, Z97-E/USB 3.1, Z97-K/USB3.1, Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1/USB 3.1, B85M-G Plus/USB 3.1 and B85-Plus/USB 3.1.
As to the ASUS USB 3.1 cards – they are new PCI-E expansion cards with either dual Type-A sockets or reversible Type-C sockets. When installed the card allows a PC to enjoy 10 Gbit/sec data transfer speeds and USB 3.1 technology – the only catch is that as of now you must install it in an ASUS X99 or Z97 motherboard and a BIOS update is also required.
The new USB 3.1 motherboards and cards should be on the market now. There’s no information on how much they cost, though.
Source: ASUS