Why aren’t there any USB 3.0 to Gigabit Ethernet adapters out there?

We’ve also been looking for these for a long time, but no one seemed to make a USB 3.0 Gigabit Ethernet adapter until just this year (2012).

But we needed them for a different purpose; we don’t do virtualization but needed to add second full Gigabit Ethernet port to the laptops we send out to be used as network diagnostics equipment. We used to use ExpressCard before, but laptops don’t have this slot anymore, so had to get the USB 3.0 to Gigabit Ethernet adapter. All others wouldn’t actually run at full Gigabit Ethernet speed despite showing it as being Gigabit Ethernet capable. The throughput of USB 2.0 was too low.

As to why it took so long, the reason is very simple actually: Nobody thought this was a product worth making until Axis decided to do it. Once they made the chip, PCB layout and programming of the chip then at least 3 companies began making the Gigabit Ethernet adapters. All of them are based on the same ASIX AX88179 chip, but the one on the site above is the cheapest we could find.

I know this an old question, but here are 2 products that I am aware of:

• SIIG’s USB 3.0 to Gigabit Ethernet Adapter (JU-NE0211-S1)
• Speed Dragon’s USB 3.0 10/100/1000Mbps Gigabit Ethernet Adapter (UNW05)

Possible reasons:

• USB 3.0 is a relatively new standard.
• Gigabit Ethernet ports have been standard on motherboards for awhile and some some even have two. So it’s not like it was in the 1990s where a network adapter was virtually guaranteed to be a non-default/add-on item for a PC.
• USB 1.1 and 2.0—and possibly to some extent 3.0, not sure—are CPU driven protocols: Great for convenience but bad when you want the maximum performance from a device such as a hard drive or a network adapter. No one usually tries to use USB for fast networking. Many who would need such an additional interface would rather install a PCI/PCI-Express card.

That being said I’m sure one will pop up eventually.