Motherboard maker Gigabyte appears to have been making a killing on the back of being one of the first to release USB 3.0 based cards.

The outfit has been releasing USB 3.0 powered motherboards for several months and using NEC's USB-IF certified chipset. NEC does not make that many of the Chipsets and Gigabyte has been taking most of them. For every 3 USB 3.0 chips produced by NEC one of them is headed towards Gigabyte.

However it seems to have paid off. Gigabyte managed to survive the recession and is on its way to make serious money on USB 3.0's back. The question is how long can Gigabyte continue to make money on the technology. Its adoption has been slow and other motherboard makers think it has a limited shelf life.

LightPeak, for example, has some powerful backers and could get adopted as another USB-IF standard. Still it is nice to know that Gigabyte has done well by being brave.