Do you believe rumors stating usb 3.0 delay due to Intel holding it back until integration in new chip sets.

USB 3.0 flash drives can transfer files 10 times faster than the current existing usb 2.0 drive up to 4.8 Gbit/s.

AMD and NVIDIA have criticized Intel which seems to purposely dragging its feet on this despite of 3.0 controller spec eventually by Intel.

What do you think?

USB 3.0 has supposed to have been out forever. Who knows.

I'm willing to murder people to get my hands on USB3.0.

Also I'm wondering if Flash Drives will start being the next medium of data transfer, cutting blu-ray short in its tracks. Sticks of several hundred megs have become cheaper than candy.

I was already under the impression flash drives were the next medium of data transfer already.

I don't know anybody that uses CDs anymore.

Not that it's huge data numbers or anything, but you can't even go to college anymore without a flash drive.  Or it feels that way.

No I mean, when will they start replacing them for things such as games, movies, and stuff. I'm guessing shortly after the 64 gig models become cheaper, but I kinda want to know when that is.

Ah, not sure Flashdrive will ever be that cheap.  Man i'd LOVE that though.  Think how much more convient and just cooler a flash drive case would look that stores like 50 Flash Drives worth of games or movies.

Of course, to be honest I seem to have a bit of an obsession over flash drives.   I keep buying em everytime i see a good deal, even though I don't need that many.

The next step for optical disks are holographic, and quatum computing for the Operating system

Tell me about it. I probably have more flash storage than I do HDD storage now.... Also think of how much more room consoles would have i they could save room on the disk drives. AND THE LOADING TIMES!

i didn't even think about how much smaller the consoles would be.  That would be huge for people like me who like to own them all.

The spec is out. The Intel spec controversy is over, though I believe the FTC are investigating that as part of a wider investigation into Intel's business practices.

Motherboards using it either need a chipset supporting it (which won't be until AMD refreshes their chipsets in Q2 at least, or Intel does so in 2011 at the earliest) or an add-in chip (which DO exist, but are not widespread).

There's just no need for USB3's bandwidth at the moment, except for external storage. There needs to be the whole 'ecosystem' - USB3 devices, controllers, connectors and PCs - in the majority of the market before it actually works. If any piece is missing, you won't see the effect.

--

SSD drives will get cheaper! Later this year you'll be able to buy 160GB for ~$225 or 600GB for ~$500. That's huge progress over a few years ago. Since flash is now made on silicon processes, it gets Moore's Law applied - twice the transistor density every two years. Flash was 50nm at the beginning of this year; vendors are moving to 34nm, and it will carry on. Flash should, assuming correlation with silicon area, get twice the capacity at the same price or, half the price for the same capacity, every year. That's faster than hard-drives ever came down.