Intel has been showing off its next-generation Thunderbolt technology which boasts double the speed and backward compatibility of the earlier versions. The technology does look good on paper and the fact that it is going under the bonnet of Apple machines means that it is guaranteed a lot of excited free publicity from the Apple frenzied press.

Intel's "Haswell" chip is now shipping to major PC makers, despite the fact that it has a bug which causes your USB drive to disappear.

Intel is developing a new version of its 8-series chipsets for Core i-series 4000-family Haswell microprocessors to fix problems with USB 3.0. The core logic sets at launch will have a nuisance USB 3.0 problem, but Intel is promising that future versions will not. Intel warned its partners that when a PC system with Core i-series "Haswell" and 8-series chipset inside it will have a nuisance problem with its USB 3.0 connections.

Apple is reportedly considering the independent implementation of USB 3.0 alongside Intel's Thunderbolt transfer protocol in next-gen Macs.

Hewlett Packard (HP) has selected USB 3.0 as the standard transfer protocol for its next-gen lineup of desktop PCs.