Garmin and USB 3.0

It took them quite a long time to finally move to USB 2.0 from USB 1.x...it may be awhile before they implement USB 3.0. Garmin is quite laggy when it comes to new technologies...especially disk storage. They had their own proprietary memory modules for a long time before they finally switched over to the SD Card format.

Sadly, I have to agree that it may be quite a while, but my reasoning is somewhat different. I seem to recall reading somewhere the percentage of Garmin owners that actually bother to upgrade their maps, and I think it was a small percentage. Those of us here on POI Factory are quite likely the small minority. As a result, I rather doubt that Garmin would be in a big rush to upgrade to USB 3.0.

Also, from my perspective, it isn't even a big deal to me. I have Lifetime Maps on 3 devices. At most, I am upgrading 4 times a year. I just sort of plan for it and often start the download before bedtime and when I get up it has finished. So, as a result, it is just not a big deal to me.

The other factor for me is I only have DSL internet service. If I was in an area served by cable internet and could do the update via USB 3.0 I might be able to do it much quicker!

I don't know that it would make a difference if they went to USB 3.0. I don't think write speeds of flash memory are fast enough that the faster transfer rate of 3.0 would help. Read speeds are a different story, but of course that would not help with loading maps.

for your thoughts. I appreciate the responses.

I don't know it there is such a thing as a mini-USB3 connector. There is a micro-USB3 connector but it is quite wide and the cable plug wouldn't fit into an original micro-USB2, so there are probably compatibility issues.

You need these extra pins to take advantage of the USB 3 speed.

USB 2 is fast enough to pump full 1080 high definition video through. It really wouldn't help to have USB 3 on a Garmin, that's not where the bottle neck is. Flash writing speeds are likely the limitation on speeds writing to your Garmin GPSr. Also, the processor itself might be limiting the speed at which it can accept data. But it isn't the input connector.

My old Nuvi 660 is USB1.0... it takes longer to install the new maps than it does to download them.

What's a two dollar canary say?

cheep cheep cheep!

You can do close to USB2 data rates on a dedicated microprocessor like the one Garmin uses without a lot of expensive hardware support.

Going to USB3 requires special connectors and special interface chips -- and that means money.

And as others have pointed out, with the gating factor the flash memory write speed, going to USB3 wouldn't make as big a difference in update speeds as the change from USB 1.0 to USB2.

Here is a link with FAQ about USB 3.0 http://www.everythingusb.com/superspeed-usb.html#improvement... .Interesting to read. The Windows 8 laptop I got has two connections for 3.0.

to the SD card from the PC just took me 5 minutes for 2013.40. I had the SD card in the read/write slot on the PC. If you leave the SD card in the GPS, it takes much longer. This was with a Zumo 550 but don't see why it wouldn't work with any SD card.

I was never a big fan of USB 1.x or USB 2. Seemed to me that there were better options already available when each came out (Firewire and even Ethernet). USB 1.x was particularly short-sighted, pretty much obsolite when it was announced. USB 2 is still relatively slow; fast enough for squeezing HD video through, but a bottleneck when it comes to accessing a hard disk, networking or other high speed data transfers. But everything has to be pretty fast to justify moving past USB 2, and writing to flash on a Garmin GPSr doesn't seem to need it.

All computers that I've used that have a memory card slot have interfaced to it through an internal UBS connection, generally USB 2. It doesn't have to be that way but it tends to keep things cheap and simple. I suggest that you look into how that SD card is interfaced to in the computer you tested it on. If it turns out to be a direct connection to the databus, or something exotic like USB 3 then you make a strong case. But I expect that you will find that your card reader is connected through a USB 2 interface and you have really demonstrated that USB2 isn't the limiting factor.

A free utility (from Microsoft) called USBview will show you your entire USB structure and what is hung off the ends, if you don't have other tools that would give you the same information.

I would really hope that they can implement the USB 3.0 for speeds that can be ridiculously slow when trying to transfer maps.