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

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

#81
post #5

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

An HDMI signal is already permitted through a USB Type-C connector [0]. HDMI, compared to DisplayPort, isn't as good but what really sucks is the copy protection scheme, HDCP; HDCP is responsible for so many of HDMI's problems.

[0] https://www.hdmi.org/press/press_release.aspx?prid=144

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

#82
So… maybe I'm missing the details, but is this just basically rebranding TB3 as USB4? That would make a lot of sense, if so.

Edit: Ah, I missed "it will not be exactly Thunderbolt 3 as its functionality will likely be different". That's a clear as mud, then.

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

#83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen them for sale on Amazon and elsewhere. I always thought they'd be neat to throw in a supplemental kit bag for a second display on the go. I think some of the smaller ones were even bus powered.

Those are USB 3.0-based DisplayLink connectors. Any supposed USB 2.0-based display connectors (I’ve never seen any, I’m just speculating) would have been some VNC-like contraption involving an emulated frame buffer on the host.

They weren't that great but we had them 15 years ago. VTLink. Dual monitors for laptop users, PC or Mac.

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

#84

Is it an unpopular opinion that USB is already fast enough and has enough features and USB implementers should instead work on cost reduction and compatibility so that we can all move away from USB 2 and pre-type-C connectors?

Is it fast enough for 4K120 or 8k displays?

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

#85
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 canv…

Could that just be the feeling of being outdoors, and away from distractions for a while?

Stop thinking about it and go with your gut feeling. EMFs are clearly the only reason you would feel better camping. /s

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

#86
post #3

Ars Technica just wrote an article about the confusing names of USB versions https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/02/usb-3-2-is-going-to-... and now they have another one about this name. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/03/thunderbolt-3-become...

I feel like hand-wringing around that is a bit overexaggerated - at the end of the day the differences really matter for only really tiny subset of devices that need those 10GBit+ transfers and in that case you can guide yourself by the "SuperSpeed 10Gbit" "Superspeed 20Gbit" logos on the actual box.

For everything else the protocols are forward and backward compatible, so you just plug in the cable and it works.

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

#87

Honestly, I'm waiting for old USB(USB A, USB B) to be deprecated and USB C become the new universal USB. As in ATM machine, you get the drill. Current USB cable situation is a mess - my phone is USB C, but it came with a USB A to USB C cable. Good thing I can connect it to my 2017 MacbookPro using it's original USB C charging cable! However then I can't charge. Sometimes I use a USB C to female USB A dongle to use my…

What kind of BS phone is that? Pixels support USB-PD which is something I'd say should be mandatory if you have a USB-C port. I can charge other phones, charge from other phones, charge my Nintendo Switch, charge from my PC, etc. That they gave you the USB-A to USB-C cable as your go-to cable is a red flag that they are peddling the connector as a marketing bullet point.

Huawei P20. It can charge my MacBook and vice versa. Using the original MacBook Pro USB charging cable. It's a solid phone, but it comes with a USB A type wall plug.

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

#88
I'd be curious about 40Gbps for what cable length. TB3 is great, you can in theory dock a laptop with a single cable that will do charging, 10gbe, USB hub, etc, but with a max 50cm cable, which makes it quite "un-lappable". I'd love to do the same with a 2m cable.

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

#89
post #84

Is it an unpopular opinion that USB is already fast enough and has enough features and USB implementers should instead work on cost reduction and compatibility so that we can all move away from USB 2 and pre-type-C connectors?

Is it fast enough for 4K120 or 8k displays?

USB or the alternate modes over USB-C connector?

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

#90

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…

Thunderbolt is PCIe so instead of a backplane you can use a cable. So basically anything you'd use PCIe for (drives, external GPUs etc) you can use TB for.
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