The new USB4 interface is much faster than USB 3.0 (Topic)

Generic USB will now be released in an updated form. Its name is the next generation USB4 standard, which should be faster and more efficient than its predecessors. As expected, gadgets with the new USB4 interface will appear next year.

Even faster

USB4 was announced back in the spring of 2019, but only now its final specifications have appeared. By the way, they could have appeared earlier - by the beginning of summer, as planned. However, everything dragged on for a banal reason - the lack of time for the development team to timely prepare a package of all documents and technical standards. A fresh replacement for the USB 3.0 standard and its other versions differs not only in the approach to the name (the new standard now has no space between “USB” and the number “4”), but also in better bandwidth.

Basic parameters

According to the product developers, the new generation USB standard is designed for speeds up to 40 Gbps. Compared to previous versions of the interface, the same USB 2.0, which has been around for nineteen years, USB4 is more than 80 times faster (USB 2.0 has a typical speed of only 0.48 Gb / s). The standard is "more modern" - the USB 3.0 version also lost to the new interface version. Its base bandwidth is 5Gbps, so USB4 is eight times faster.

The "fourth" USB was based on the open Intel Thunderbolt 3 protocol, which defined the main features of the interface, including the maximum speed characteristics. Close interaction with the Thunderbolt standard added USB4 the ability to perform multiple actions at once, such as exchanging information with simultaneous video transmission. This allows you to connect multiple monitors, accelerators and other Thunderbolt 3 devices to your PC at once. The new USB interface can optimize these processes, for example, allocate some part of the channel to the video signal, and determine the remaining resources for data transfer.

Compatibility

Having become a close relative of the Thunderbolt protocol, the USB4 standard is fully compatible with it. In addition, the project team talks about compatibility with previous USB interfaces, including versions 3.0, 2.0 and 1.1. For users, this means that devices with integrated USB4 can be used on a PC with previous versions of the interface, although the communication bandwidth will still be limited by the parameters of the existing standard.

All information about the revolutionary USB4 has not yet been disclosed. So, the developers did not share the details about what the USB port will be for the new interface. It is known that the base USB-C connector for USB4 will remain in the same form factor, and integration with USB-A will be possible through adapters.

The Topic of Article: The new USB4 interface is much faster than USB 3.0.
Author: Jake Pinkman