USB 4 is here, and is essentially Thunderbolt 3
After a tease in March, the USB Implementation Forum has declared that it has completed the USB 4 standard, implementing the USB-C connector, plus 40Gbps speed and other features of Thunderbolt 3.
The USB Implementers Forum has announced that revealed USB 4 is finalized for wide deployment. While the implementation of USB 4 by vendors may be a long time away from happening, the draft specification itself is expected to be published later in 2019.
The specification spans Thunderbolt 3, as chip producer Intel has contributed Thunderbolt 3 to the group. The inclusion will effectively make it easier for vendors to produce devices using the technology at a cheaper rate than at present, and possibly without any of the current confusion of USB and Thunderbolt 3 connectivity due to using the same USB Type-C connector.
The benefits -- and some disadvantages -- of USB 4 are the same as those of Thunderbolt 3, including a throughput of up to 40Gbps, and may include elements such as power delivery of up to 100W, allowing notebooks to be charged over the same connection as the one sending a video signal to 4K and 5K displays. The spec will offer backwards compatibility with earlier USB standards, including USB 3.2 and USB 2.0, as well as Thunderbolt 3 itself.
The advantages of the protocol as a whole are constrained somewhat by cabling. The USB-C connector spans a wide variety of speeds and power requirements. There is not yet a labeling standard that the cable manufacturers must abide by, making cable selection by users somewhat problematic.
The implementation comes after Intel has offered the Thunderbolt 3 standard royalty-free to manufacturers with Tuesday's announcement, being the end-point of that.
"Releasing the Thunderbolt protocol specification is a significant milestone for making today's simplest and most versatile port available to everyone," said Jason Ziller, General Manager, Client Connectivity Division at Intel. "By collaborating with the USB Promoter Group, we're opening the doors for innovation across a wide range of devices and increasing compatibility to deliver better experiences to consumers."
While Apple is already an adopter of Thunderbolt 3, the change will help with the creation of more accessories that will work at the higher connection speeds and have support for the standard, in part due to it becoming more widely available. Indeed, Intel's integration of Thunderbolt 3 into future processors, including "Ice Lake" chips announced earlier this year, will help further that support.
USB 4 follows after the 2019 debut of USB 3.2 Gen 2x2, which recently underwent a somewhat confusing name change. That specification will be an upgrade from USB 3.1, now known as USB 3.2 Gen 2, doubling the bandwidth from 10Gbps to 20Gbps.
The USB Implementers Forum has announced that revealed USB 4 is finalized for wide deployment. While the implementation of USB 4 by vendors may be a long time away from happening, the draft specification itself is expected to be published later in 2019.
The specification spans Thunderbolt 3, as chip producer Intel has contributed Thunderbolt 3 to the group. The inclusion will effectively make it easier for vendors to produce devices using the technology at a cheaper rate than at present, and possibly without any of the current confusion of USB and Thunderbolt 3 connectivity due to using the same USB Type-C connector.
The benefits -- and some disadvantages -- of USB 4 are the same as those of Thunderbolt 3, including a throughput of up to 40Gbps, and may include elements such as power delivery of up to 100W, allowing notebooks to be charged over the same connection as the one sending a video signal to 4K and 5K displays. The spec will offer backwards compatibility with earlier USB standards, including USB 3.2 and USB 2.0, as well as Thunderbolt 3 itself.
The advantages of the protocol as a whole are constrained somewhat by cabling. The USB-C connector spans a wide variety of speeds and power requirements. There is not yet a labeling standard that the cable manufacturers must abide by, making cable selection by users somewhat problematic.
The implementation comes after Intel has offered the Thunderbolt 3 standard royalty-free to manufacturers with Tuesday's announcement, being the end-point of that.
"Releasing the Thunderbolt protocol specification is a significant milestone for making today's simplest and most versatile port available to everyone," said Jason Ziller, General Manager, Client Connectivity Division at Intel. "By collaborating with the USB Promoter Group, we're opening the doors for innovation across a wide range of devices and increasing compatibility to deliver better experiences to consumers."
While Apple is already an adopter of Thunderbolt 3, the change will help with the creation of more accessories that will work at the higher connection speeds and have support for the standard, in part due to it becoming more widely available. Indeed, Intel's integration of Thunderbolt 3 into future processors, including "Ice Lake" chips announced earlier this year, will help further that support.
USB 4 follows after the 2019 debut of USB 3.2 Gen 2x2, which recently underwent a somewhat confusing name change. That specification will be an upgrade from USB 3.1, now known as USB 3.2 Gen 2, doubling the bandwidth from 10Gbps to 20Gbps.
Comments
Are there things TB3 can do that USB4 cannot?
They aren't precisely the same. In theory, the TB3 spec divorced from USB4 can use optical cables, whereas USB4 cannot, but this may be an academic difference as there are no optical TB3 cables yet.
The hand-off of different speed devices on a TB3 host device versus a USB4 host device is a little different, meaning how a 40Gbit chain responds to a 5,10, or 20Gbit device being plugged in varies between the two protocols.
the other thing is just how confusing this all is to most people. I just barely have it straight myself. Several flavors of usb along with TB 3. We do have some of that now, of course, but this will be much more complex. People will need to figure out what all the prevailing usb standards that will work on this, and then how long a cable can be for the highest speed for each standard, and what cable will work with each standard. It’s much worse than ever before. People will make lots of mistakes with cabling and peripherals, and then complain that it’s not working the way it was promised.
At the very least, they need to come up with, and enforce, a clear cable-labelling scheme.
Essentially the question I have is this: Does this mean that USB 4 is just Thunderbolt 3 with USB backward compatibility thrown in?
It doesn't sound like any new capabilities have been added, so implementing USB 4 should be a breeze for Apple, right?
Why then, would implementation be "be a long time away" for vendors? For someone like Apple, whose new Mac Pro has a confusing mix of USB-A, USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 ports, would it not be a priority to make the 'switch over' as fast as possible?
The engineers need to be physically thrown out of the marketing meetings.
Come on people! Here's a novel idea, how about this:
All USB 4 devices are named:
USB 4
And you connect them together with a:
USB 4 cable.
2: Because the chipsets for USB4 aren't due until 2020. There were Thunderbolt 3 chipsets available in 2016 for the MacBook Pro refresh that year, as the spec was finalized in 2015. USB4 chipsets don't exist today.
USB 3.2 gen 2x1 is a single lane of 10 Gb/s USB (also known as USB 3.1 gen 2).
USB 3.2 gen 1x2 is two bonded lanes of 5 Gb/s USB (also known as USB 3.0 or USB 3.1 gen 1)
USB-IF recommends manufacturers label both as "SuperSpeed USB 10 Gbit/s", even though with a single-lane cable, 1x2 will only be capable of 5 Gb/s. Thanks, USB-IF!