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Speed-Doubling USB4 is Ready -- Now We Just Have to Wait for Devices

posted by martyb on Wednesday September 04 2019, @05:55AM   Printer-friendly
from the Waiting-for-Godot,-again dept.

aristarchus writes:

As reported at C|net, USB4 is ready to go.

USB4 is done, the group developing the next version of the immensely successful USB connector technology said Tuesday. USB4 doubles speeds compared to today's fastest USB 3.2 by incorporating Intel's speedy Thunderbolt technology that you already see on high-end laptops and peripherals. The USB Implementers Forum announced the completion of the technical specification Tuesday, a move that frees hardware and software engineers to get cracking building the actual products to support it.

Today's USB 3.2, which enables data transfer speeds up to 20 gigabits per second, is still something of a rarity; most of us have earlier versions of the technology that works at 5Gbps or 10Gbps. USB4 promises a speed boost to 40Gbps, helpful for things like using multiple external displays or fetching files from external hard drives.

What is the Serial Bus equivalent of, "Looks like I'm going to have to buy the White Album again."?

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 04 2019, @06:23AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 04 2019, @06:23AM (#889394)

    Requires active cables for max speed, which leads to more of a cable mess than we have.

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Wednesday September 04 2019, @07:40AM

    by takyon (881) <{takyon} {at} {soylentnews.org}> on Wednesday September 04 2019, @07:40AM (#889406) Journal

    This basically consumes Thunderbolt 3 and leaves it for dead.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbolt_(interface) [wikipedia.org]

    Compared to Thunderbolt 2, it doubles the bandwidth to 40 Gbit/s (5 GB/s), allowing up to 4-lane PCIe 3.0, 8-lane DisplayPort 1.2, and USB 3.1 10 Gbit/s.

    [...] On 24 May 2017, Intel announced that Thunderbolt 3 would become a royalty-free standard to OEMs and chip manufacturers in 2018, as part of an effort to boost the adoption of the protocol. The Thunderbolt 3 specification was later released to the USB-IF on 4 March 2019, making it royalty-free, to be used to form USB4. Intel says it will retain control over certification of all Thunderbolt 3 devices, though it will not be mandatory.

    --
    [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]

  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 04 2019, @07:44AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 04 2019, @07:44AM (#889408)

    The Thunderbolt 3 specification allows for passive cables for 1.5 feet or less, and connections that are power only. It also allows for fiber optic cables and hybrid cables. With the speeds further increasing and people loathing yet another connector change, I could see the fiber optic cables becoming more widespread in their usage.