Taiwan's government-funded Industrial Technology Research Institute, (ITRI) debuts the world's first USB3.0 memory card, with a number of Taiwan ICT giants, including Hon Hai Group, Transcend Information Inc. and Asustek Computer Inc., to start mass production for the card in 2010.

To help Tainwan ICT companies to explore the emerging segment for storage devices based on USB3.0 specifications, ITRI has been engaged in developing the USB3 memory card, which is compatible with both USB2.0 and USB3.0 ports and will be vastly used in different ICT products, including e-book readers, netbook PCs and HD video devices.

ITRI notes that the newest memory card's maximum data transmission speed is 10 times that of traditional storage devices based in USB1.0 specifications. For instance, 25GB of data can be completely transmitted in 70 seconds via USB3.0, compared to 9.3 hours via USB1.0

Besides, the institute adds, the production cost of a USB3.0 memory card is only US$1 higher than that of traditional USB cards, boosting the possibility for the new card to replace USB2.0 and SD memory cards as the mainstream in the market in future.

Asustek indicates that it will demonstrate its newest notebook PCs built with USB3.0 ports at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas in 2010.,while Transcend is also going to launch USB3.0 thin memory cards in the first quarter of 2010, which are expectedto contribute to its total revenue in the year.

According to ITRI,the global demand for USB3.0 spec-based chipsets will reach around 12.45 million units in 2010, and the figure is estimatedte to surge to 2.3 billion units by 2015, with over 50% of which to be used in storage devices. Hopefully, Taiwan will command 40% of the market for USB3.0 storage devices in 2015, with USB3.0 memory cards to create business opportunities worth round NT$100 billion ( US$ 3.076 billion at present exchange rate )