Consumer products became available in January 2010.[54][55] To ensure compatibility between motherboards and peripherals, all USB-certified devices must be approved by the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF). At least one complete end-to-end test system for USB 3.0 designers is on the market.[59]
On January 5, 2010, USB-IF announced the first two certified USB 3.0 motherboards, one by Asus and one by Gigabyte.[55][60] Previous announcements included Gigabyte's October 2009 list of seven P55 chipset USB 3.0 motherboards[61], and an ASUS motherboard that was canceled before production.[62]
Commercial controllers are expected to enter into volume production in the first quarter of 2010.[63] On September 24, 2009 Freecom announced a USB 3.0 external hard drive.[64] On January 4, 2010, Seagate announced a small portable HDD with PC Card targeted for laptops (or desktop with PC Card slot addition) at the CES in Las Vegas.[65][66]
Drivers are under development for Windows 7, but support was not included with the initial release of the operating system.[67] The Linux kernel has supported USB 3.0 since version 2.6.31, which was released in September 2009.[68][69][70]
Intel will not support USB 3.0 until 2011[71], which will slow down mainstream adoption. These delays may be due to problems in the CMOS manufacturing process,[72] a focus to advance the Nehalem platform [73], a wait to mature all the 3.0 connections standards (USB3, PCIe3, SATA3.0) before developing a new chip set[74][75], or a tactic by Intel to boost its upcoming Light Peak interface.[76] Current AMD roadmaps indicate that the new southbridges released in the beginning of 2010 will not support USB 3.0[72]. Market researcher In-Stat predicts a relevant market share of USB 3.0 not until 2011.[77]
