Well I guess you don’t need to buy a mac anymore cause Intel went on the record Wednesday saying that its silicon will support USB 3.0 in 2012 and urged developers to target both USB and its new “Thunderbolt” technology.

“Intel is going to support USB 3.0 in the 2012 client platform. We’re going to support Thunderbolt capability. We believe they’re complementary,” said Kirk Skaugen, a vice president at the Intel Architecture Group, speaking at Intel’s developer conference in Beijing Wednesday. The event was streamed over the Web.

 

Only select laptops, such as the Dell Precision M6500, support USB 3.0 today using non-Intel silicon.

The “2012 client platform” that Skaugen referred to is known more commonly by the code name “Ivy Bridge,” which is the family of chips that will follow the “Sandy Bridge” processors shipping in PCs today.

USB is one of the most widely used connection technologies in the world, found on everything from PCs to tablets to smartphones. Intel laid the groundwork for widespread adoption in spring 2002 when it put the technology in its silicon. When Intel includes USB 3.0–which is about 10 times faster than current USB technology–in Ivy Bridge silicon in 2012 that will mark 10 years since the chipmaker upgraded its chips to the newest USB tech.

Today, Intel has support for USB 3.0 only in select desktop motherboards. And those boards don’t use an Intel chip but a separate part from NEC to implement USB 3.0.