USB 3.0 Use with Linux

[Luke-Jr]

On Wednesday, August 25, 2010 07:00:01 pm Monty J. Harder wrote:
> On Wed, Aug 25, 2010 at 6:43 PM, Luke-Jr <luke at dashjr.org> wrote:
> > Do note in general, USB 3.0 is /not/ compatible with USB 1 or 2.
> 
> Care to explain?
> 
> > 5. Will my existing peripherals still work? How will they co-exist?
> > The good news is that USB 3.0 has been carefully planned from the start
> > to peacefully co-exist with USB 2.0. First of all, while USB 3.0
> > specifies new physical connections and thus new cables to take advantage
> > of the higher speed capability of the new protocol, the connector itself
> > remains the same rectangular shape with the four USB 2.0 contacts in the
> > exact same location as before. Five new connections to carry receive and
> > transitted data independently are present on USB 3.0 cables and only
> > come into contact when mated with a proper SuperSpeed USB connection.

Well, that's interesting! I guess I had assumed the physical connection change 
was on both ends, to avoid people mistakenly thinking it was compatible, but I 
see it in fact has another purpose. Unfortunately, some devices (such as mice) 
have the cable built-in and thus could not possibly remain compatible.