How to find out what yusb 3.0 on a laptop. How to determine which USB port is on a laptop or computer? How to determine the type USB port in appearance

If the USB device and platform support data transmission in USB3.0 mode at a speed of 5 GB / s., It would seem, nothing prevents to be convinced of this. There is a lot of utilities for this, and our research contributed to the search for a response to this question. In addition, if the drive demonstrates the speed significantly exceeding 50-60 MB / s., Then you can declare - this is the mode Super Speed. Since in USB 2.0 mode, this speed is physically unattainable, and there is no "intermediate" options. But not everything is so simple ...

Why is everything so difficult

By virtue of of various reasons, Full support for new modes of universal serial bus in system information utilities, is somewhat delayed. As a result, we often see only differentiation between USB1 and USB2 and recognition of USB3 connections as USB2. In addition, the information received from the device descriptors declares its potential capabilities, and not the current high-speed mode, selected purely hardware. According to the USB specification, the contents of descriptors should depend on the set speed, but the developers of devices do not always follow this rule. As a result, whatever the result (USB2 or USB3) we do not see, there are grounds for doubt.

Taking into account the continuous improvement of advanced reading technologies and postponed recording, draw conclusions, focusing solely at the speed of copying files on the hard disk, it will be methodologically incorrect, although with large sizes of files (gigabyte units), such a criterion has the right to life. But there is more radical, and therefore a more reliable way - get information directly from the registers of the USB 3.0 XHCI controller, writing a small UEFI application on the assembler.

Experimental conditions and system objects

Platform - laptop ASUS N750JK., and the connected USB 3.0 device - hDD Transcend. StoreJet 35T3. . The target object will be the register fields of the USB3.0 XHCI controller, indicating the connection type. Note that depending on the speed mode (USB2 or USB3), the controller "sees" the device through one of two groups of registers.

Fig.1 . Bits register PORT N STATUS AND CONTROL USB2indicate a type connections: Low-speed, Full-speedor High-Speed.

Fig.2 . Bits register PORT N STATUS AND CONTROL USB3indicate a type connections: SUPER-SPEED

CheckUSB utility

The source texts are prepared in Flat Assembler 1.71.17 format. The CheckUSB utility is designed to run in the X64 UEFI environment. The current version supports Intel 8 Series system logic, USB 3.0 must be included in CMOS Setup.. Such a binding is associated with the support of a wide set of registers specific for this system logic and not provided for by the XHCI controller specification, and secondly, in order to simplify, calculate the address displacements and the dimensions of a number of register fields, as well as the task of the number of ports, is implemented for Private case, namely this system logic. detailed information Contained in the document:

• Intel 8 Series. / C220 SERIES CHIPSET FAMILY PLATFORM CONTROLLER HUB (PCH).Datasheet. June 2013.

Enthusiasts wishing to expand the functionality of our simplest example and implement the support of various sets of system logic, recommend the document:

• EXTENSIBLE HOST CONTROLLER INTERFACE For Universal Serial Bus (XHCI).Revision 1.1.

In addition, direct access to the PCI and Memory-Mapped I / O configuration space is recommended to replace the corresponding UEFI protocols.

We analyze the results

So, the utility worked, the report generated.

Fig. 3.

Pay attention to the list of connections to the USB controller ports. Initially, three devices are followed in the laptop, and the fourth is our desired outdoor hard disk Transcend. StoreJet 35t3.SUPERSPEED mode is enabled. Detailed analysis of the content of the register fields is given.

Summary

A low-level study made at the physical access level to the USB3.0 XHCI controller registers in the UEFI Firmware environment unambiguously indicates - Super Speed \u200b\u200bmode is on. But the serviceability of the equipment is necessary, but not a sufficient condition of its correct operation in the operating system session. The cause of problems can be, for example, the XHCI controller driver or OS itself. Therefore, a logical continuation will conduct a similar experiment in the OS session, for example, Windows. This task is more complicated, since the controller registers are privileged system resourceFor access to which you want to write your own driver. In addition, in the operating system session, its regular driver interacts with the USB controller, it is necessary to take care of unconfluousness.

So how to distinguish USB 3.0 and USB 2.0? Well, that USB 3.0 is faster, and so everyone already knows, but few know how to distinguish the fake from the real or how they differ.

To begin with, we look at our first USB, the so-called 1.0 USB, they are used even in new mice, webcams, all those devices whom the first USB has enough full:

As you can see, they have in 4-re contacts and plastic under them white. This is an easy way to determine what is the 1st USB.

Now we look at the 2nd:

Here, of course, it is difficult to consider and understand that there are 4-re contacts and under them Black plastic is a clear sign of USB 2.0. As we already know, 2.0 and 1.0 are compatible, the differences only in speed: 2.0 faster in speed, but it does not read the flash drive faster, and the controller is working faster through which communication is running. Of course, USB 2.0 usually indicate that this is the 2nd USB, but all sorts are there.

We look, as USB 2.0 connector looks like:

As you can see, it is also black, although manufacturers in rare cases change this color intentionally (design), but the correct color should be black in 2.0 USB.

And now, finally, we look at 3.0:

This is the most successful photo of all I did, on USB 3.0 nine contacts: 4 in front and 5 rear (they are slightly raised above):

And as we see, the plastic under the contacts of blue is a clear sign 3.0: after all, they should everywhere to make her blue.

Here are usb 3.0:

The inscription SS suggests that the controller is made under Super Speed, that is, the maximum possible speed. Such can be seen on the external hard disks 3.0.
If both SS soster and SS connector, then the maximum data transfer rate will be.

So, the problem, how to distinguish if the design, for example, blue, like here:

There is a blue plastic, but it is USB 2.0. So how to distinguish? - By contacts, I said that the third nine contacts, and second four:

Here it is in the analysis, and here it is clearly clear that there is only 4-re contact.

USB 3.0 is compatible with 2.0 and 1.0, so that the connectors 3.0 can also stick 2.0, and 1.0. If you insert in the third USB connector 2.0, then there will be a speed 2.0, if 1.0, then speed 1.0. So do not be afraid to insert into it and others. Just when you need a speed, and you will have a 3.0 device, insert it in 3.0. USB 3.0 internal connector maintains the transfer rate to 5 Gbps.

Recently, the so-called USB 3.1 has been released to the market, it is indicated as SS (Super Speed) for each of the connectors. It faster USB 3.0 and has compatibility with the second and first USB. USB 3.1 or black or blue (as in my case color), and 3.0 only blue.

USB drives, and speaking easier, flash drives, tightly entered our lives, and it is difficult to imagine a person who does not use this device. However, the choice of a USB disk for many is determined only by design and volume, some who have already come across the problem slow recordingAlso look at the speed. We propose to understand the differences in flash drives by parameters that are less likely to pay attention, but which are the main for USB drives.

The very first USB drives intended for transferring and storing digital information appeared in 2000. Thanks to compactness compared to other media, today they have practically displaced CDs and other less technological storage media. Now such a device is perceived as a standard thing: many carry them like key rings or give as a useful souvenir, for example, for the new year.

The device under consideration produces many famous and not very manufacturers (ADATA, Kingston, Apacer, Silicon Power, Corsair, Transcend, Teamgroup, SanDisk, Lexar), so often the well-known manufacturer for the user is a guarantor of quality and allows you to concentrate when choosing on design. In the market (especially in online stores), there are many fakes from China, which stating some characteristics, in reality they do not match.

All this imposes its imprint to the choice of the consumer. The development of Internet storage allows in many situations to do without the use of flash drives and have access to data anywhere, but they are not always able to replace the physical medium of information.

The USB disk volume is a key indicator for the price (Yandex.Market data):

4 GB - 180 rubles

8 GB -190 rubles

16 GB - 270 rubles

32 GB - 500 rubles

64 GB - 1000 rubles

128 GB - 2900 rubles

256 GB - 11000 rubles

The listed information took into account only the volume and the average price. Many manufacturers do not indicate the speed of reading and recording for the carrier.

For SD- (Micro-SD) cards, the device is specified more often on the package, which defines only the recording speed:

Class 2 - (recording speed of at least 2 MB / s)

Class 4 - (recording speed of at least 4 MB / s)

Class 6 - (recording speed of at least 6 MB / s)

Class 10 - (recording speed of at least 10 MB / s)

For a USB drive an important parameter is a USB standard (2.0 or 3.0), which determines the potential features of the device. USB decrypt as "universal sequential tire"Universal Serial Bus). USB 3.0 (SuperSpeed \u200b\u200bUSB) potentially has very high speed and performance indicators.

USB 2.0 in the theory should have a speed of 480 Mbps, but in reality does not reach 250 Mbps. USB 3.0 can reach theoretical maximum speed of 4.8 Gb / s, which is ten times higher than uSB speed 2.0.

USB 2.0 flash drive on 16 GB costs about 270 rubles, similar volume of USB 3.0 - 370 rubles.

USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 standards are largely compatible with each other. This means that inserting a USB 3.0 flash drive into connector 2.0 (USB 2.0 flash drive into connector 3.0), it can be considered and write out the data, however, the speed will be limited to either a connector or a drive.

Visually drives and connectors of Standard 3.0 are characterized by presence inside plastic blue.

How to independently check the reality of the volume declared on the package, and the speed characteristics of the USB drive? Make it will allow free programsWorking with which is pretty simple.

The first H2TestW program (link) will allow you to evaluate the real volume, this is especially important if you purchase media in Chinese online stores, where the most often the seller tries to deceive the buyer.

This program does not require installation. We launch it and see the following:

By default, the program is German, so if you are not strong in this language, you should set the switch to English:

We leave all other switches in its place. Press the "VRITE + VERIFY" button to start the test, we see the following picture:

Testing goes for quite a long time, the program writes information information and reads it after recording. 8 GB USB-drive will be tested about 40 minutes. As a result, we will see the following report:

But it looks like the result for a fake drive, where the manufacturer stated a volume of 64 GB, and in fact we have 7.4 GB:

Of course, in this case, it is advisable to demonstrate the test results to the seller and return your money.

This program leaves the files to be deleted manually on the test disk:

The Second CrystalDiskmark program will allow you to evaluate the speed characteristics of the drive.

And several other devices that we will connect to it, in parallel, measuring the speed of their work.

Check, what is the actual speed of reading and writing for a new interface, at the same time and test the acquired controller in the "combat" conditions :)

To begin with, we will test my new USB 3.0 flash drive of 8 gigabytes. Here it is:

As you can see, the packaging is written "Super Speed" and below are the specific values \u200b\u200bof this "super speed": Read 100 MB / S (reading - 100 megabytes per second) and Write 20 MB / S (recording - 20 megabytes per second). In the course of testing, we will definitely check this statement!

Also in our test another USB drive will take part: an external hard disk with uSB interface 3.0 from the company "Seagate".

But let's in order! To begin with, we break our flash drive and put it next to her "sister" (also on 8 gigabytes) of the USB 2.0 standard that's what we did:

How can we notice, flash drive uSB standard 3.0 noticeably more. What is it caused?

Let's consider this moment in more detail. What does a typical USB drive of an old sample disassembled? And it looks like this:

Here here we have: printed circuit board with a single microcham (chip flash memory) and a small controller controller with all "economy" + the connector itself. There is nothing more interesting in the case anymore.

Now, let's look at the flash drive of the same volume (8 gigabytes), but a new (high-speed) standard:

We see that the board has a whole four flash memory chip (in the photo they are marked red) plus the microcircuit of the controller, which is controlled by them. The four chips need more space, from here - the larger size of the entire design.

It will not be superfluous here that high-speed flash drives on 16 gigabytes are even more in size! I think now you, dear readers, understand why?

Such a "speed" flash drive works as a zero raid array (RAID 0), when somewhat combine into one virtual cluster, where information is distributed immediately by all the disk array in the form of small blocks (straights). Due to this is achieved increased speed The work of the entire cluster. Speed \u200b\u200bincreases in proportion to the number of disks involved in such an aggregation.

Note: In the design described above, the speed is achieved by sacrifice reliability. Since, at the failure of at least one of the disks, the entire array is destroyed. I repeat, it is designed not to reduce data storage (reliability), namely, the speed of their processing.

Now we can clearly make sure that the increased speed of the new USB 3 flash drives is achieved, largely due to the increase in the number of flash memory chips. As we remember, the stated speed of the USB 3.0 interface is 5 GBS / C (Gigabit per second) - about 600 MB / C (Megabyte per second). BUT! This is exactly the speed of the device interface that has nothing to do with the speed of the slower level in the "filling" of the flash drive (controller, data bus and memory chips themselves).

Here the situation is similar to the one that we understood in the article dedicated. When the speed of work declared on the box is very different from the one that is actually.

Note: in the summer of 2013 it came out a new version Standard - USB 3.1, which allows you to reach the transmission rates of 10 Gb / c (gigabit per second). I remind you that is only over the interface, i.e. The actual speed of the end device is much lower.

So, after installing our computer, we go to the dispatcher device and see the following:

It is natural that to start working with a new device, the system needs its driver. Well, no one promised that everything would be easy :) We go to the board of the manufacturer of the board and download the driver for our operating system (Windows 7 32 bits). Install it. Device dispatcher "says" that everything went successfully!

After that, immediately wanted to answer a question about what to work at the maximum speed of new uSB devices 3 Need a special extension cord. We talked about him in the first part of this article.

Of course, you can connect the drive directly to the board and not "bother", but we must check everything carefully! Therefore, we join our high-speed flash drive to the controller through the extension cable of the outdated standard 2.0 and immediately at the bottom of the screen see this pop-up window:

As they say, it was necessary to prove! If you want to use the extension with new speed devices - buy special cable (It is standing around 6-8 dollars).

Now, proceed directly to testing. How did we spend it? I recorded on all media the same amount of data (about three gigabytes). Moreover, the data was an absolutely heterogeneous set of digital information: music, video clips, one big ISO file.Many small files and documents, distributions of various programs and utilities.

In short, I tried to present a typical data set that the average user can stored on the device. After all, all recording speed and reading speeds are interested in us, first of all, from a practical point of view (in a real, daily situation), and not in the form of synthetic calculations?

Testing multiple USB 3.0 drives

Speed \u200b\u200bmeasurements were carried out using two programs: "" and "" can download them and spend your own testing. Also, measurements were carried out using the tool embedded in Windows 7.

The photo below shows the screenshot with the result of reading (copying) of the stated data volume (three gigabytes) from the "old" flash drive of the standard 2.0

The ultimate time for which the data was completely copied to the hard disk of my computer was about four minutes. We will also be interested in the "Speed" field, shown in the photo above. As you can see, its average value is 13.2 MB (megabytes) per second.

The following screenshot is the same, but for the "Record" indicator (I fully formatted the USB flash drive) and back started to write data copied to it before it.

The record lasted about fourteen minutes from the average speed indicated in the photo.

Now let's make this: Let's try to measure the time and speed of moving the same data on the new flash drive 3.0, connecting it, so far, to the same slow port of the outdated standard.

That's what we did for reading (copying) from the drive to the disk.

Two minutes (against four for the drive of the old sample), at an average rate, also twice as far as its posesawa - 26.5 megabytes per second.

Screenshot Below shows us a photograph of speed and time entries Species of heterogeneous data of three gigabytes for the high-speed flash drive:

Three minutes (against fourteen) for an old drive. Almost five times faster!

And now - attention! Having dried, connect the high-speed drive to the high-speed USB 3 port and we naturally expect a significant increase in indicators.

First, as always, is the operation of copying our data.

One minute on the high-speed port (against two on slow). Honestly, I expected a better result.

But I finally upset me the second test (to write), where the numbers were almost the same as in the case of connecting the high-speed flash drive to the "slow" port of USB 2.0.

Let's just remember this empirical result and return to his analysis a little later: after completing all our tests.

Let's start multiple synthetic tests now. And let's start with " Crystal Disk Mark."(Link to download above) and measure the speed of the USB drive 3.0 connected to the slow port 2.0 standard.

In the screenshot, we see that before the program issued the result, the test "ran" five times with a file of 100 megabytes. Why did the program show three different results? The business is that the first line shows us continuous and serial (sequence) read operations (READ) and records (WRITE) for the file of the specified size.

Row 512K shows the speed of writing and reading for files of 512 kilobytes, and the last (third field) measures the speed for very small files up to 4 kilobytes. The smaller the files and more of them, the more time you need for operations on them. This is normal.

But - measurements for the same USB 3.0 flash drives, but connected to the high-speed port 3.0.

Remember, the most first screenshot in this article and the challenges declared on the packing: (100 and 20 megabytes / s per read and write)? As you can see, it's very close to the truth!

Now is the time to remember our results of real copying data, where the high-speed device connected to slow (2.0) and rapid (3.0) ports for operations entries Showed almost the same results.

In the test, spent above, we see the same situation! Operation reading (Read) - sharp jerk forward, and speed entries (Write) remains almost unchanged.

Let's take another program to be forced AS SSD BENCHMARK."(Link to download - above) and let's see what she will show?

What is the screenshot below? We have chosen our device from the list of drives (8 gigabyte USB 2.0 Flash Drive Silicon Power) and started a sequential (sequence) for it for reading and writing operations.

We see that the speed measurement was: for reading 16.56 megabytes / s and for recording - 4.66 megabytes per second. If you remember on the first screenshots of our testing, it is quite at the level of those results that we saw in real copying and reading data from the drive (there was 13.2 for reading and 3.7 to write).

Now, we will measure for our high-speed drive connected to the same "slow" port 2.0.

As you can see: 33 megabytes / with reading and 19.48 megabytes / s on recording (versus 26.5 and 16.8 in a real test when moving files of 3 gigabytes). Very similar meaning, which means that are close to reliability results.

Pay attention to the field " ACC. Time."(Access Time - access time) in the screenshot above. It indicates a delay between the data transfer command and, in fact, the time to start copying them. This is exactly the reason (among the number of others) that do not allow high-speed USB 3 device to accelerate to Those speeds that ended consumers are waiting for from him, i.e. - We are with you.

Now is the time to connect our new drive to port 3.0 and fix the result:

As expected, the speed of operation entries It remained almost unchanged, but the result of reading from the device - pleased (91.63 megabytes per second). ACCESS TIME also decreased, which indicates the best optimization of the controller when accessing the flash memory cells.

Now, we give several screenshots that will demonstrate to us the work of our USB 3.0 external drive Seagate by 500 gigabytes, about which we mentioned at the beginning of the article. Here is his photo:

Let's try to evaluate the real speed of our external hard drive, "razoril" to him the same amount of information that we used to use for a flash drive. To begin with, connect HDD to a slower (2.0) USB port. Computer and spend record test.

Three gagabytes copied to external disk From the computer in two minutes and thirty seconds at the average speed shown in the photo above.

Now we will spend the same test (to write), but by connecting the hard drive to the "native" high-speed 3.0 PC port.

The recording time, in this case, accounted for one minute and fifteen seconds (twice less), with twice the speed.

Now let's try to spend the same two tests using the AS SSD Benchmark program. Connect the drive to port 2.0 and start the program:

Now - to a high-speed USB 3.0 connector:

A little unexpected result! :) But I checked several times - the picture did not change. This, apparently, confirms the idea that it is necessary to refer to purely synthetic tests with a known share of caution.

Now, as promised at the beginning of the article, I will express my subjective opinion about the testing and obtained with its help.

I did it like this: to feel a significant increase in speed from using usb. 3.0 flash drive Even for sure to connect it to the "native" high-speed port of blue. Moreover, if it is simply not on your computer! In itself, the presence of several parallel chips in the drive of several, parallel chips, already gives a significant increase in speed.

Additionally, the connection to port 3.0, unfortunately, does not give the expected speed gain (first of all, for recording operations), apparently, due to the presence of other "bottlenecks" of the design (the data bus made by the delay controller before the start of the transfer, etc. ).

Count for money: the high-speed flash drive on 8 gigabytes will cost about $ 20 (against five for the usual old 2.0 standard). Tests we led above. Visually estimate the speed increase in about 4-5 times. Next - the choice is yours. Is it worth paying "extra" 15 dollars for getting more comfortable work with large amounts of data? I personally decided for myself: "stands!" :)

I repeat, even if you have a specialized USB 3.0 port in your computer, you will feel a big difference! The potential of the new interface, in my case, more fully revealed only when used external USB 3.0 hard diskconnected to a high-speed PC port.

Of course, it is not worthwhile to dedicate about all these 5Gbit / S, 10Gbit / s. As we have already spoken, it is a potentially possible interface speed that has little in common with the speed of real. Get a good increase in speed new technology We can now. What, in fact, you wish, dear readers, and see you in the following articles on the pages of our site!

USB 3.0 interface is much more productive than its predecessor - USB 2.0. Whereas the latter limits the linear data recording rate on a flash drive at 30-40 MB / s, through the first files on USB flash drive 3.0 can be copied at a speed of about 100 MB / s. This is a real example, in the theory of the limit throughput USB 2.0 is considered 60 MB / s, and USB 3.0 - 625 MB / s. To take advantage of the USB 3.0 interface, it must also be equipped with a media (USB, USB-HDD, other storage devices), and a computer. How to find out, on your computer are USB 2.0 or 3.0 ports?

On the laptops and motherboards of the PC, released earlier in 2010, the USB 2.0 ports will be installed with a high probability. And here computer devicesLater released, can be equipped with USB 3.0.

What USB interface is equipped with a computer, you can learn from external signs of ports. USB 1.0 ports have 4 contacts, and plastic under them white. The USB 2.0 ports are also equipped with 4 contacts, but plastics under them, as a rule, black. Inside the USB port 3.0 there is as many as 9 contacts, and the plastic under them is usually blue. The modern models of PC and laptops can be equipped with the most productive USB 3.1 interface with a declared maximum capacity of 1250 MB / s. Plastic under contacts of such ports can be painted both black and in blue. From the predecessors of the predecessors of the USB 3.1 ports features an engraved inscription "SS" (Super Speed).

PC housings are usually equipped with a front panel with additional uSB ports For convenience of connecting devices. But for such convenience the owners of computers who do not know that their motherboards support USB 3.0, often pay with a volatile waiting while moving data to the USB flash drive. After all, even modern, but budget corps are usually equipped with USB 2.0 ports.

Find out the computer is USB ports 2.0 or 3.0, you can use windows. We go to the device manager and reveal the USB controllers branch. If host controllers are found in the list of branches as an "enhanced host controller" ("Enhanced Host Controller"), and their names do not contain "USB 3.0" addiction, it means that the USB ports 2.0 are standing on the computer.

The presence of USB 3.0 ports will directly say "USB 3.0" in the names of extended host controllers. The computer supports USB 3.0, also testifies to the presence of the controller branch in the list, in the title of which there is an abbreviation XHCI - Note to the Universal Interface Extensible Host Controller Interface.

How to get USB 3.0 ports if they were not found? At a total upgrade in the form of a laptop replacement or PC motherboard with all components dependent on it there is an alternative - installing a USB 3.0 adapter. For PC assemblies, such adapters exist in the form of boards installed in the slot PCI EXPRESS.. To laptops uSB adapters 3.0 are connected using ExpressCard slot. On Aliexpress USB 3.0 adapters can be ordered for a great price of just over $ 5. This option will give a certain increase in performance, but still will not reach uSB features 3.0, initially supported modern laptops and motherboard. After all, data transmission will be limited by the bandwidth of the corresponding slot.

Excellent day!