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USB4 Specification Announced: Adopting Thunderbolt 3 Protocol for 40 Gbps USB

anandtech.com

31–40 of 279 posts

Re: USB4 Specification Announced: Adopting Thunderbolt 3 Protocol for 40 Gbps USB

#31

As someone who knows next to nothing about how USB actually works and just uses it, what goes into making each USB generation faster? At the physical layer, is it the materials in the cables are getting better? Or new ways of using the same materials? At the protocol layer, is it newly developed computer science theory being applied or is it just old fashioned pragmatic engineering iteration, looking at usage and mak…

Nope. Much simpler. Just enabling the use of the other data lanes that were already in the cable waiting to be used one day. USB-C has 4 differential twisted pair data lines.

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Re: USB4 Specification Announced: Adopting Thunderbolt 3 Protocol for 40 Gbps USB

#32

As someone who knows next to nothing about how USB actually works and just uses it, what goes into making each USB generation faster? At the physical layer, is it the materials in the cables are getting better? Or new ways of using the same materials? At the protocol layer, is it newly developed computer science theory being applied or is it just old fashioned pragmatic engineering iteration, looking at usage and mak…

[deleted]

Re: USB4 Specification Announced: Adopting Thunderbolt 3 Protocol for 40 Gbps USB

#33

As someone who knows next to nothing about how USB actually works and just uses it, what goes into making each USB generation faster? At the physical layer, is it the materials in the cables are getting better? Or new ways of using the same materials? At the protocol layer, is it newly developed computer science theory being applied or is it just old fashioned pragmatic engineering iteration, looking at usage and mak…

Nope. Much simpler. Just enabling the use of the other data lanes that were already in the cable waiting to be used one day. USB-C has 4 differential twisted pair data lines.

That sort of explains why USB cables have been getting more expensive. More copper.

Re: USB4 Specification Announced: Adopting Thunderbolt 3 Protocol for 40 Gbps USB

#35
post #5

I’d love to ditch HDMI (even on my television!)

I'm actually really happy with HDMI. It doesn't change much, has good compatibility and doesn't confuse a video cable for anything else. To me its universality makes it better than display port. My next PC will likely have 2 HDMI ports and that will make me very happy. Lots of USB for other stuff but the speed won't be an issue there - no need for USB 4 data rates because... who needs it?

Re: USB4 Specification Announced: Adopting Thunderbolt 3 Protocol for 40 Gbps USB

#36

tl;dr: Intel made Thunderbolt 3 royalty free in 2018, so now it's essentially being adopted as USB4. I had to look up what the point of 40Gbps was, and the industry evangelization site https://thunderbolttechnology.net/ explains that it will allow driving one 5k display or two 4k displays, which is not possible with the 20Gbps offered by USB 3.2 or Thunderbolt 2. This also helps external GPUs, where TB2/USB3.2 is the…

Does 40Gbps mean two 4K displays daisy chained?

Re: USB4 Specification Announced: Adopting Thunderbolt 3 Protocol for 40 Gbps USB

#38
post #9

Does this also mean that soon every computer will be making noise/radiating waves around 40GHz? Can someone with more depth in this area shine some light on this?

Is tinfoil-hatesque EMF poisoning real?

I personally believe that it is real (just go camping where there's no service and you'll feel better) but it's hard to prove without decades of study and money, which won't happen because there's so much money to be made.

There are other reasons why camping makes you feel better. Earthing/grounding gets you in touch with the earth's natural schumann resonance (through the canvas tent) and the fresh air. Also too getting away from distractions.

There's a real study on this, but they don't speculate what the cause it: http://time.com/4656550/camping-sleep-insomnia/

Re: USB4 Specification Announced: Adopting Thunderbolt 3 Protocol for 40 Gbps USB

#39

I am starting to see computers with USB C on the host side. The future of one single connector to rule them all will be here soon. Wait a minute, we already had that, it was usb 2.0?!?!

I never saw anyone hooking up a monitor via USB 2.0

Re: USB4 Specification Announced: Adopting Thunderbolt 3 Protocol for 40 Gbps USB

#40

As someone who knows next to nothing about how USB actually works and just uses it, what goes into making each USB generation faster? At the physical layer, is it the materials in the cables are getting better? Or new ways of using the same materials? At the protocol layer, is it newly developed computer science theory being applied or is it just old fashioned pragmatic engineering iteration, looking at usage and mak…

Nope. Much simpler. Just enabling the use of the other data lanes that were already in the cable waiting to be used one day. USB-C has 4 differential twisted pair data lines.

Why not turn them on all at once?
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