First Demo of External HDD With New USB 3.0 Interface

Symwave, Inc. announced collaboration with Seagate Technology to demonstrate Symwave’s USB 3.0 storage controller device designed to comply with the SuperSpeed (USB 3.0) specification revision 1.0. The technology demonstration is the world’s first consumer product application of USB 3.0 and will take place at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada from January 8-11, 2009. The demonstration will showcase streaming data to and from a commercially available external storage device at speeds previously unattainable with legacy USB technology.

Seagate’s award-winning FreeAgent family of external storage solutions will be used to demonstrate the read-and-write transfer speeds of USB 3.0. Seagate was selected for this display of technology due to the company’s industry leadership position and reputation for maintaining a high-level of technological innovation.

The USB 3.0 specification is a rapidly emerging technology that enables high-speed connectivity between consumer devices at up to 10 times faster than current solutions. It is backwards compatible with the more than 10 billion USB devices shipped to date. Only seven weeks ago, Symwave announced the world’s first USB 3.0 physical layer device (PHY) at the same time as the first public release of the Revision 1.0 Specification at the SuperSpeed USB Developers Conference.

“Symwave is honored to be working with Seagate in this show of the first USB 3.0 solution in a real world application of data backup, storage and media streaming,” said Yossi Cohen, president and CEO of Symwave. “Customer reaction to our new PHY device for USB 3.0 has been extremely positive and we will continue to focus on delivering leading-edge products that will allow them to address the growing demand for high-speed storage solutions.”

The industry’s SuperSpeed USB organization encompasses over 200 companies including the leading brands in consumer electronics, mobile devices, storage, and PCs. With such broad industry momentum and support, SuperSpeed USB is poised to become the most pervasive high-speed connectivity technology over the coming years.