Don’t Be Fooled by USB 3.2 Marketing Later This Year
At the Mobile World Congress last week, the USB Developers Forum decided to change the crazy and insane world of USB by renaming what is now known as “USB 3.2” – the latest and fastest standard expected to hit PCs later this year. – as well as USB. 3.0 and USB 3.1.
And to simplify the work, everything will simply be called USB 3.2. No, we are not making it up. There are (or rather will be) three versions of “USB 3.2”.
- USB 3.2 Gen 1 , commonly referred to as USB 3.0, transfers data at speeds up to 5 GB per second.
- USB 3.2 Gen 2 , which we call USB 3.1, transfers data at up to 10 GB per second.
- USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 , formerly referred to as USB “3.2” media outputs, transfer rates up to 20Gbps.
If it’s still confusing, here’s a handy spreadsheet originally found in the German tech edition Computer Base :
As you can see from the diagram, there are a few extra folds here.
First, while many colloquially refer to the current USB standards as USB 3.0 and 3.1, the USB Developer Forum has already renamed USB 3.0 to “USB 3.1 Gen 1”. In other words, this silly naming convention, while silly, is not unprecedented.
Second, there are marketing titles. To minimize consumer confusion, the USB Developer Forum has created “marketing headlines” for each option. They’re terrible, but at least they give you an idea of how fast each USB 3.2 standard is, which is much better than the conventions “1”, “2” and “2×2”.
Another factor not in the table is that the new USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 standard only works with USB Type-C ports. This makes sense as USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 achieves maximum speed by using two 10Gbps data links, which is only possible with USB Type-C.
However, this does NOT mean that all USB Type-C cables will be 20GB. If you have a cable that is “certified for 10Gb / s SuperSpeed +,” as TTI notes, you’re fine.
Still don’t understand? We don’t blame you, but don’t worry. Devices will not be able to take advantage of the new ultra-fast USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 speeds until the end of this year. And even so, most people probably don’t have any reason to push 20GB / s at home – except when, say, you want to run a 4K (or higher) monitor with insanely high refresh rates over USB. -C connection.
However, when the manufacturer promises insanely fast USB 3.2 speeds, do your homework and check what they really mean. You might get a turtle instead of a rabbit.