The USB implementation Forum (USB-IF) made an incredible announcement earlier this week, revealing the long-awaited specifications for USB4! And from the looks of it, USB4 is set to become major competition to the likes of Thunderbolt 3 in almost every respect! This is huge news! We’re talking 40Gbps transfer rates, continued support for display protocols AND power delivery! It looks like the standard is being set, with single-cable computing coming out on top!
USB4 Is Almost Here!
With the USB4 tech specs upon us, we see right off the bat that it will use the same Type-C connection we all know and love, but it will offer double the speed of the current USB3. Based on Intel’s Thunderbolt protocol, USB4 will easily be able to handle up to 40Gpbs (that’s 5,000MB/s) bandwidth when using USB-C cables.
This is incredibly exciting because it means you’ll never again have to scratch your head wondering if that port on your PC is USB or Thunderbolt.
Now, USB4 hasn’t come to market… yet. But once it does—hopefully sometime around 2020—we’ll finally have one true, fast and reliable, universal connection to unite us all! And get this: USB4 will be backwards compatible with Thunderbolt 3, USB 3.2, and USB 2.0 so your older cables won’t be a problem. We’ll just have to deal with our older hard drive read and write speeds! I guess this means it’s time to upgrade to SSD everything.
All in all, USB4 promises to level the playing field. There’s always been a bit of confusion surrounding USB3.2 and USB Type-C connections. And the cost of Thunderbolt 3 has made it less attracted to users who don’t want to drop a lot of cash on newer computers. What USB4 brings to the table is affordable, fast and reliable single-cable computing in all its glory. And quite frankly, we can’t wait!
(Via Endgadget & PetaPixel)
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