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First USB4 retail products expected by end of 2020

by Mark Tyson on 13 June 2019, 10:11

Tags: USB Implementers Forum, Intel (NASDAQ:INTC)

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We reported upon the announcement of USB4 back in March this year. At that time Intel revealed that the next-gen USB specification was going to be built upon its open licensed Thunderbolt 3 technology. USB4 will offer up to 40Gbps speeds, double the speed of the USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 standard (AKA SuperSpeed USB 20Gbps).

At the recent Computex show AnandTech met up with the USB Promoter Group to see how work on the USB4 specification was going. The tech site shared the good news that "the spec is in its 0.7 version and things are proceeding quickly." Furthermore, it confirmed that USB4 will be backwards compatible with existing USB Type-C devices.

We are currently at version 0.7 in the development phase and the slide above estimates that we should have v1.0 published before summer is out. They next obvious question concerns availability of USB4 ports and devices. According to AnandTech's chat with the USB-IF, "actual USB4 supporting devices will be available by the end of 2020". Intel and partners should be pretty clued up in building the interfaces with their experience in equipping PCs and devices with Thunderbolt 3 I/O. 

Standard

Speed

New marketing name

Original name

USB 3.2 Gen 1

5Gbps

SuperSpeed USB

USB 3.0 "SuperSpeed"

USB 3.2 Gen 2

10Gbps

SuperSpeed USB 10Gbps

USB 3.1 "SuperSpeed+"

USB 3.2 Gen 2x2

20Gbps

SuperSpeed USB 20Gbps

USB 3.2 "SuperSpeed+"

 

Some folk were a bit annoyed at branding and name changes for USB 3.0, 3.1, and 3.2. You can check the easy to reference table for the up-to-date naming convention and what it means for speeds above. With USB4, we hope the USB-IF can get good and clear branding right from the start. The report from Computex says that with the speed boost and extended capabilities of USB4, the promoter group is working on a new logotype and branding scheme.



HEXUS Forums :: 11 Comments

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My money says they actually name it USB 3.3 (2x2)x2. There's still many moons for them to change their minds and screw it up.
They make it like intel)14++).
I don't see why they don't just merge USB and Thunderbolt. Have one standard using one cable making it simple for consumers. You'll still end up with ‘is this thunderbolt or is this USB’.
For example on my HP laptop it shows a thunderbolt symbol on a USB Type C connector. I thought yay I have Thunderbolt 3. Turns out the thunderbolt symbol is different to the official Thunderbolt 3 symbol and all it means is that it will charge usb devices from that port… Well played HP well played.
Universal Thunderbolt Bus? Because UTB is one letter better than USB! (Joke stolen from Isaac Asimov who wrote that his HAL AI computer was named so that each letter was one ahead of IBM)

It'd still end up being “UTB 3.141594… SuperSpeedPowerPlus+^2”

I nostalgically looked up RS-232 and realised that also had a many changes and variations over the years - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RS-232
AGTDenton
For example on my HP laptop it shows a thunderbolt symbol on a USB Type C connector.

You aren't missing much. I gave my Thunderbolt “docking station” to a co-worker as it was nothing but constant grief. Working on the ground floor I couldn't even get proper satisfaction from throwing it out a window :D