INTEL PLANS TO make the specification for a USB 3.0 host controller freely available during second half of this year, hitting back at rumors the chip maker wanted to keep the technology for itself.

The specification will be made available under a con¬tract that doesn't require roy¬alty payments. "Basically: free, gratis, unpaid, zero dol¬lars, free of charge, at no cost, on the house," wrote Nick Knupffer, an Intel spokes¬man, on a company blog.

Knupffer's comments is In te I an apparent response to industry rumors Intel wanted to keep USB 3.0 - which promises substantially faster transfer speeds than USB 2.0 - for itself, meaning that only Intel¬made chip sets would support this feature. The host control¬ler specification -which dif¬fers from the USB 3.0 specifi¬cation - is meant to speed the design of chips that sup¬port USB 3.0, he said.

The specification is being developed by the USB 3.0 Promoter Group. The group counts Intel, Microsoft, HP, NXP Semiconductors, NEe and Texas Instruments as members. Intel isn't planning to make the host controller specification available because the company's executives are nice people, Knupffer said.