macOS Sierra beta points to future Macs equipped with 10Gbps USB 3.1 Gen 2

Posted:
in Future Apple Hardware edited August 2016
Upcoming Macs may support USB 3.1 Gen 2, enabling peripheral speeds up to a maximum 10 gigabits per second, code discovered in macOS Sierra suggests.




A string in the Sierra beta mentions SuperSpeed+, a term reserved for Gen 2 ports, 9to5Mac noted on Wednesday. In fact it also specifically cites the 10-gigabit speed cap, twice as fast as Gen 1.

Apple could be planning to include Gen 2 on updated iMacs and MacBook Pros, which should be announced sometime this fall. Support would likely come through Thunderbolt 3, which is not only cross-compatible with Gen 2 but offers native speeds up to 40 gigabits per second, and DisplayPort 1.2 connectivity.

Most people probably won't see an appreciable difference from Thunderbolt 3 or Gen 2, at first, but the technologies could simplify connecting devices like 4K monitors, and speed up backups and file transfers on some external drives.

While there have been few rumors about what upgrades Apple has in store for the iMac, the MacBook Pro is expected to be thinner, and sport an OLED strip showing context-sensitive commands. Higher-end models should come equipped with AMD's Polaris graphics chips.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 21
    Nice! Will be a nice upgrade whenever I make the jump from my 2012 MBPro. No time soon though...
  • Reply 2 of 21
    sflocalsflocal Posts: 6,092member
    I currently use my TB2-equipped 5K iMac with my Promise TB2 disk array.  Try as I could, I wasn't able to remotely saturate the bandwidth.  As much as I'm impressed with the speed of TB2, it's amazing to know that TB3 will push the envelope even more.  We just need the hardware that can take advantage of such bandwidth.  Sure, adding extra 4K-5K monitors would be a start, but storage devices to use that bandwidth would be a pretty amazing thing.  Expensive I'm sure they will be.
  • Reply 3 of 21
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    Apple holding out for native support via Kaby Lake.
  • Reply 4 of 21
    ireland said:
    Apple holding out for native support via Kaby Lake.
    As desperately as I need a new MacBook Pro, I'm willing to wait a little longer to get the latest and greatest, not because I'm likely to exploit the benefit now, but since I keep these things for five years at a time, the more "current" it is out of the gate, the less I suffer in years three, four, and five.


    1983jdgaz
  • Reply 5 of 21
    fastasleepfastasleep Posts: 6,408member
    ireland said:
    Apple holding out for native support via Kaby Lake.
    No. The Skylake chips most likely for MBP just came out, Kaby Lake probably not til mid-2017 if it sticks to a similar timeline to Skylake. 
  • Reply 6 of 21
    fastasleepfastasleep Posts: 6,408member
    Also, wtf — this is old news — from June:
    edited August 2016 Soli
  • Reply 7 of 21
    So USB 3.1 Gen 2 is different from older 3.1? How many "standards" are there going to be? (Serious question)
    baconstang1983
  • Reply 8 of 21
    fastasleepfastasleep Posts: 6,408member
    3.1 Gen 1 is 5Gbps (and is the same thing as "USB 3.0"), 3.1 Gen 2 is 10Gbps.

    http://www.usb.org/developers/ssusb/USB_3_1_Language_Product_and_Packaging_Guidelines_FINAL.pdf
  • Reply 9 of 21
    entropysentropys Posts: 4,152member
    I'll hold out for the USB 3.1 gen 2 Extra Special Super Edition with even more superlatives.
    dysamoriabaconstangnostrathomasfastasleep
  • Reply 10 of 21
    polymniapolymnia Posts: 1,080member
    I'm hoping for new discreet graphics cards that can drive a 4K in 30 bit mode. My current gen, top spec MBP can't do that now and I could use the bits for my color calibrated workflow
  • Reply 11 of 21
    How about Blue
    Tooth 5.0
  • Reply 12 of 21
    appexappex Posts: 687member
    Just about time for Apple to release standard ports on all devices, including Thunderbolt 3, USB 3.1 Type C Gen 2 and SDXC with extra pins supporting maximum read/write speeds (300 MB/s).
  • Reply 13 of 21
    sflocal said:
    I currently use my TB2-equipped 5K iMac with my Promise TB2 disk array.  
    Could you please point me to the disk array? I'm interested in picking one up.
  • Reply 14 of 21
    SoliSoli Posts: 10,035member
    I hope these new MBPs arrive soon, but without any HW leaks, it seems like it has to still be _at least_ 6–8 weeks out.

    sflocal said:
    I currently use my TB2-equipped 5K iMac with my Promise TB2 disk array.  
    Could you please point me to the disk array? I'm interested in picking one up.
    bestkeptsecret
  • Reply 15 of 21
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    Brasado said:
    How about Bluetooth 5.0
    Won't be here in time. Mostly likely early 2017 for that version.
  • Reply 16 of 21
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    No. The Skylake chips most likely for MBP just came out, Kaby Lake probably not til mid-2017 if it sticks to a similar timeline to Skylake. 
    Skylake first launch in August 2015. Kaby Lake began shipping to manufacturers and OEMs in the second quarter of 2016. Volume production for retail channel is expect in late 2016 (Wikipedia)—hence why I wonder if Apple are holding out for Kaby. Would seem insane after such a long wait to launch the new machine with last year's chips just a month or two before the latest chips are ready to go. They would miss the back-to-school window, but they can't do everything. Hopefully Kaby is ready by late Sep or something. Apple could announce in late Sep and ship in late October. That gives Intel 2 months to get this done.
    edited August 2016
  • Reply 17 of 21
    No one wants indiscreet graphics!
    polymnia
  • Reply 18 of 21
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    sflocal said:
    I currently use my TB2-equipped 5K iMac with my Promise TB2 disk array.  Try as I could, I wasn't able to remotely saturate the bandwidth.  As much as I'm impressed with the speed of TB2, it's amazing to know that TB3 will push the envelope even more.  We just need the hardware that can take advantage of such bandwidth.  Sure, adding extra 4K-5K monitors would be a start, but storage devices to use that bandwidth would be a pretty amazing thing.  Expensive I'm sure they will be.
    That's the one thing that I am disappointed about with the new Mac Pro I have.  It is so amazingly modular and I will be able to replace just about anything in it in the years ahead from OWC parts, e.g. storage, CPU, RAM, GPUs but the TB and USB port section doesn't seem to be modular.  If that were simply a click into place assembly like so much of the rest of this little cylinder it would have been awesome.  TB2 is easily saturated and USB3 more so.  So I will have to weigh carefully the pros and cons of even upgrading a single part.  It maybe better to sell and buy a next gen Mac Pro when TB3 and USBc are included. 
    edited August 2016
  • Reply 19 of 21
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member

    sflocal said:
    I currently use my TB2-equipped 5K iMac with my Promise TB2 disk array.  
    Could you please point me to the disk array? I'm interested in picking one up.
    JFYI You can also make your own RAID 0 arrays easily enough for a fraction of the price.  Having been in the Apple business since the late 70's I have seen so many ready made disk units fail I have become very shy of them now it's my own money.  I use inexpensive and easily replaceable external dual docks both USB3 and TB and add bare drives and stripe them in my case using SoftRAID. Currently I find the 3TB 7200 Seagate Barracudas work very well and I always have a daily clones made using Carbon Copy Cloner to a second and third set of identical 6TB RAIDs (all automatically from CCC scripts).  This gives me a kind of manual RAID 0 + 1.  I use TB as primary and USB3 dual docks as the clone targets.  The USB3 dual docks run $30 on Amazon.  They are as fast as a TB1 but don't have the bidirectional speed of TB.  I mention this as unless you are using FCPro then USB3 maybe sufficient.  The TB docks from Highpoint run around $200.  Of course the 3TB bare disks these days are very inexpensive.  I tried using a pair of SSDs but it wasn't price / performance good enough for me ...   by a long way yet!
  • Reply 20 of 21
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member

    No one wants indiscreet graphics!
    Remember for many people thy are fine.  My wife would be fine.  On the other hand, like you, could not tolerate the lack of performance, in fact I want the best pair of GPUs I can afford in a Mac as I run macOS with GPU dependent Apple Pro apps and Windows 10 where I take advantage of paired GPUs when applicable.
    edited August 2016
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