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"&amp;lt;vc&amp;gt;&amp;lt;strong&amp;gt;In a sign that Apple plans to adopt USB 3.0 in addition to Thunderbolt on its MacBook lineup, the company is said to have inked a deal with Genesys Logic for USB 3.0 card reader controller chips.&amp;lt;/strong&amp;gt;\r\n\r\nThe integrated-circuit design house will provide the USB 3.0 chips for Apple's next-generation MacBook Air models, which will be released in the second half of 2012, &amp;lt;em&amp;gt;DigiTimes&amp;lt;/em&amp;gt; reported &amp;lt;a href=\"http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20120514PD213.html?mod=3&amp;amp;q=APPLE\"&amp;gt;on Monday&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;. Overall shipments of USB 3.0 products are expected to take off in 2012 with the launch of Intel's next-generation Ivy Bridge processors, which are also expected to be found in Apple's next Macs.\r\n\r\nGenesys Logic manufactures the &amp;lt;a href=\"http://www.genesyslogic.com/product_01_1.php?id=78\"&amp;gt;GL3220 Card Reader Controller&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;, a USB 3.0 complaint chip which can support various types of memory cards. Apple's 13-inch MacBook Air includes a dedicated SD card reader, which would make it an ideal fit for the new chips.\r\n\r\nThe card reader controller allows for a system's internal SD card slot to connect to a system's onboard USB 3.0 controllers. The rumored deal with Gensys and Apple could suggest that Apple plans to add USB 3.0 support to its future MacBooks.\r\n\r\nLast year, Apple launched its first Macs with the new high-speed Thunderbolt port, which the company co-designed with Intel. Thunderbolt support is set to come to Windows PCs this year, as Intel views it and USB 3.0 as &amp;lt;a href=\"http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/04/15/intel_will_support_usb_3_0_alongside_complementary_thunderbolt.html\"&amp;gt;complementary technologies&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;, with support for both built in to Ivy Bridge processors.\r\n\r\n&amp;lt;div align=\"center\"&amp;gt;&amp;lt;img src=\"http://photos.appleinsider.com/thunderbolt.022411.001.jpg\" alt=\"Thunderbolt\" border=\"0\" height=\"600\" width=\"800\"&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/div&amp;gt;\r\n\r\nFormerly code-named \"Light Peak,\" Thunderbolt's data transfer speeds are &amp;lt;a href=\"http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/02/24/first_look_inside_apples_fast_new_thunderbolt_port_on_macbook_pros.html\"&amp;gt;20 times faster&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt; than the current, widely available USB 2.0 specification. Thunderbolt's 10Gbps speeds are even twice as fast as USB 3.0.\r\n\r\nLast September it was rumored that Apple &amp;lt;a href=\"http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/09/01/rumor_apple_investigating_usb_3_0_for_macs_ahead_of_intel.html\"&amp;gt;was investigating&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt; USB 3.0 support with new Mac hardware. The third-generation of USB is backward compatible with the previous generation of devices."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://appleinsider.com/articles/12/05/14/genesys_tapped_to_supply_usb_30_chips_for_apples_macbook_air>