The next generation of USB devices might support data transfer speeds as high as 80 Gbps, which would be twice as fast as current-gen Thunderbolt 4 products.
The USB Promotor Group says it plans to publish the new USB4 version 2.0 specification ahead of this year’s USB Developer Days events scheduled for November, but it could take a few years before new cables, hubs, PCs, and mobile devices featuring the new technology are available for purchase.
USB4 version 2.0. That’s the name they went with.
Would you rather them go the Firefox route so we would be looking at USB 27 instead?
bassbeast,
I’m with Thom on this one. USB4.1 would be better. USB4 v2 isn’t good and will only add to confusion and difficulty of identifying and buying USB products.
USB numbering conventions started out reasonably enough but then somebody with authority decided to take a crap on that.
USB 1.0
USB 1.1
USB 2.0
USB 3.0 -> USB 3.2 Gen 1
USB 3.1 -> USB 3.2 Gen 2
USB 3.2 -> USB 3.2 Gen 2×2
USB 4.0 -> USB 4 v1
USB 4.1 -> USB 4 v2
Bah, I’m not even sure if I got it all right. There was nothing wrong with the intuitive numbering. This mess is an unforced error of their own making.
It was the whole backwards renumbering that really got me, with USB 3.0 becoming USB 3.1 gen 1 then USB 3.2 gen 1.
If we’re lucky, they’ll continue the new trend and USB 4.2 will be called USB 4 V2.B and USB 4.3 will be USB 4 V2.B II.
I think it could be really easy. USB does 3 things: protocols, power, bandwidth. So you want a name that includes that.
USB+P “power focused”
USB+B “bandwidth focused”
USB 2.0 -> USB (all USB is at least USB 2.0 so we just call it USB)
USB 3.x gen 1 -> USB+B5
USB 3.x gen 2 -> USB+B10
USB 3.x gen 2×2 -> USB+B20
USB with 40Gbit and 100Watt -> USB+B40+P100
USB with 65Watt -> USB+P65
As far as I understand USB you have 3 versions: 2.0, 3.x 5Gb/10Gb/20Gb, 4.x 40Gb/80Gb/120Gb
But what does it really matter to consumers? Only bandwidth and power matters. You want a cable that can connect your laptop to power? Buy USB+P45 or higher. You want a cable that also does monitor? Buy USB+B5+P45 or higher.
Fergy,
At that point why not just explicitly list the specs? This seems clear to me without a cheat sheet to understand it.:
USB3 5gbps 45W
If I saw products labeled this way on a store shelf, it would be immediately clear what I was looking at and comparing.
Sadly that requires common sense on their part and common sense has clearly been tossed out the window.
Clear to you and me. Not clear to normal people. You want to be able to give people instructions: buy a cable with these numbers. 5gbps should be clear but has many variations. 5000mbs, 5gbs, 5Gb, 5 Gigabit.
People who call themselves educated even use Gb and GB as if they are the same. Let alone people who know they are noobs.
Fergy,
It’s not really a big problem as long as the industry is consistent. That way even novices could compare apples to apples. I honestly don’t find that using correct units is any harder than inventing new arbitrary units like ‘B’ and ‘P’. Those still have to convey units anyways, so IMHO it’s much better just use the real units instead.
Chrome started with releasing each 6-8 weeks. Later Firefox adopted the same system because with a browser you have to update often and early.
No clue if you wanted to be funny. You are just inaccurate on many levels.
So the route WiFi took?
After looking at the mess it currently is.. yes i would rather have USB 27. So I know exactly what I’m getting with each version.
Yes, very much so. It would be a lot clearer than the complete mess the USB-IF has come up with as it is.
USB numbering is idiotic from a consumer point-of-view, where it matters most. It’s completely unnecessary, completely easy to fix, yet persists for some demented reason. It’s hard to believe nobody in the USB Promotor Group has pointed out how stupid the numbering is.
friedchicken,
I believe this is how it went down…
Q: Consumers are getting confused by our USB version naming, can we fix it?
A: No. That’s just what they’ll be expecting us to do.
Can anyone recognize the quote before clicking the link? 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0X0ZYbnHxA
Got the reference, but then I’m old 🙂
This whole debacle is just more proof that XKCD will always be relevant:
https://xkcd.com/927/
“The nice thing about standards is that you have so many to choose from; furthermore, if you do not like any of them, you can just wait for next year’s model.”
Why is USB naming going in the direction of Video Card naming?
Next, it’ll be USB4 Version 2.0 X, then XL, then QXT.
After that they could go retro and add a ‘Mark II’ after the whole name, and just to make it clear you’re getting the best a ‘Deluxe’ or ‘Pro’ label.
USB4 Version 2.0 QXT Mark II Deluxe Pro HyperX.
You read it here first.
Video card naming is nowhere near as bad as USB.
> USB4 Version 2.0 QXT Mark II Deluxe Pro HyperX
AND KNUCKLES
From when they first started down this route of insanity:
“The internal details of the technical specification aren’t intended to be used with consumers, nor do we intend that the specification version numbering (3.0, 3.1, etc.) be used for this purpose,”
At this point, USB is the “plug it in and it will work at some speed” connection.
Not only are there a myriad versions of the damn thing, but you have things like “BIOS handover” getting in the way (created in order to allow compatibility of newer USB standards with good ol’ Windows 7 without the need for drivers). In other words, you may have a newer USB version but have it operating at lower speeds due to “BIOS handover” being set to Windows 7-friendly defaults. I am a geek and I can’t remember if I am supposed to have it on or off for Windows 8.1 and above. This tells you what you need to know.
I’m going back to my SIO connectors. At least there was clearly only ever one direction to plug in, it was a universal port, and supports daisy chaining right out of the box with no real need for a hub, though a hub is available. Atari for life!
They should have gone with v.42bis; that wouldn’t be confusing at all.
MattPie,
Wow, I laughed a surprising amount at this 🙂
Option 1: Interesting, 80Gbps out of a connector and skinny cable, and you can tunnel PCIe and DP and backwards compatible with previous USB-C devices. Wonder what the technical details behind it are?
Option 2: Generation + Rev Number is hard naming, hurr durr!