Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

SoylentNews is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop. Only 18 submissions in the queue.
posted by martyb on Wednesday February 27 2019, @04:28AM   Printer-friendly
from the clear-as-mud dept.

People already get the names wrong, so the USB group has doubled down on bad naming.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/02/usb-3-2-is-going-to-make-the-current-usb-branding-even-worse/

USB 3.0 was straightforward enough. A USB 3.0 connection ran at 5Gb/s, and slower connections were USB 2 or even USB 1.1. The new 5Gb/s data rate was branded "SuperSpeed USB," following USB 2's 480Mb/s "High Speed" and USB 1.1's 12Mb/s "Full Speed."

But then USB 3.1 came along and muddied the waters. Its big new feature was doubling the data rate to 10Gb/s. The logical thing would have been to identify existing 5Gb/s devices as "USB 3.0" and new 10Gb/s devices as "USB 3.1." But that's not what the USB-IF did. For reasons that remain hard to understand, the decision was made to retroactively rebrand USB 3.0: 5Gb/s 3.0 connections became "USB 3.1 Gen 1," with the 10Gb/s connections being "USB 3.1 Gen 2." The consumer branding is "SuperSpeed USB 10Gbps."

What this branding meant is that many manufacturers say that a device supports "USB 3.1" even if it's only a "USB 3.1 Gen 1" device running at 5Gb/s. Meanwhile, other manufacturers do the sensible thing: they use "USB 3.0" to denote 5Gb/s devices and reserve "USB 3.1" for 10Gb/s parts.

USB 3.2 doubles down on this confusion. 5Gb/s devices are now "USB 3.2 Gen 1." 10Gb/s devices become "USB 3.2 Gen 2." And 20Gb/s devices will be... "USB 3.2 Gen 2×2." Because they work by running two 10Gb/s connections along different pairs of wires simultaneously, and it's just obvious from arithmetic that you'd number the generations "1, 2, 2×2." Perhaps they're named for powers of two, starting with zero? The consumer branding is a more reasonable "SuperSpeed USB 20Gbps."

-- submitted from IRC


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 3, Informative) by DannyB on Wednesday February 27 2019, @03:13PM (3 children)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday February 27 2019, @03:13PM (#807626) Journal

    Just wait until they get to the number "9". Both Windows and MacOS skipped over it for a reason ...

    Um . . . there WAS a Mac OS 9. It was the final beloved version of the Classic Mac OS. After it came the abomination popularly known as OS X with an obsession on cats.

    Spend less time fixating on skipping over nine and spend more time obsessing on the number 10, but label it X.

    Mac OS X will be the last one.

    Windows 10 will be the last one. Microsoft: please change the name to Windows OS X.

    Linux 10 anyone? anyone?

    --
    To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +1  
       Informative=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Informative' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   3  
  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday February 27 2019, @03:14PM

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday February 27 2019, @03:14PM (#807627) Journal

    One more thing . . . Android is now up to 9. So Google didn't skip 9. How about Android OS X?

    --
    To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 27 2019, @07:11PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 27 2019, @07:11PM (#807749)

    lazy minded, retarded fucks already call ubuntu 18.04 ubuntu 18, ffs!

    • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday February 28 2019, @03:13PM

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Thursday February 28 2019, @03:13PM (#808141) Journal

      So I can deduce:

      Ubuntu 18 means 18.04

      Ubuntu 18 OS X means 18.10

      --
      To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.