151–160 of 174 posts
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USB4 is more than just "renamed Thunderbolt 3". It adds USB 3.x tunneling while Thunderbolt 3 could only tunnel PCIe and DisplayPort (AFAIK, it faked USB 3.x tunneling by having a PCIe USB 3.x host on the device).
so USB4/neo-Thunderbolt is going to be the true universal connector? Does it still have a "mess" of different levels or protocols? I'm hoping the thunderbolt 3 devices I have will "just work" with usb4 ports.
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Once this is sorted out we would have a wonderful world. Using a single Thunderbolt port I connect my notebook to a dock and immediately convert the small notebook into a desktop with three external monitors plus many other ports. I can also magically use the same USB-C hub I use in the notebook in my mobile phone to add a keyboard and mouse plus an HDMI monitor. I have never seen this in the past: my previous notebo…
Has anybody yet made a GPU and monitor that use a type-c alternate mode (whether it be display-port or something else) plus power delivery, such that your monitor does not need a separate power cable? I would love to reach the point where a desktop computer only had a single power cable leading to the wall, with everything else getting powered via it.
The real limiting factor here is that, assuming you could get a GPU with USB-C-out, you'd have to pass that power and any for accessories hooked up to the monitor through the GPU, and the nice ones currently are hitting the limits of available power already all by themselves (75W PCIE, 2x 150W power connectors - and a Vega 64, for example, can briefly peak at 360W).
So, to power your monitor over the same cable (and have at least another 15W for accessories plugged into it), you'd need a GPU that maxes out well under current ones on the market, which kind of defeats the point, you know?
On a side note, the way GPUs are increasingly hitting power constraints is why you see new designs switching to weird proprietary stuff like Apple's MPX modules, which allow a dedicated 500W per graphics card.
i used to think usb c was awesome and would lead to a 1 wire for everything world. Now i have 4 different kinds of usb c wire i need depending on usecase - passive usb c for charging my headphones since they didn't implement a resistor, active usb c for charging laptop,usb c for charging mobile(fast charging),usb c for data transfer/thunderbolt/video display what a disaster of a spec
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And if you plug a Samsung Galaxy S9/10/Note into that same USB-C, a full desktop will appear on your monitor as well using your existing ethernet, mouse, keyboard and audio outputs. Something not possible with full sized HDMI ports.
Sad news if you update to Android 10: https://9to5google.com/2019/10/18/samsung-discontinues-linux...
Linux on Dex was never particularly useful.
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And if you plug a Samsung Galaxy S9/10/Note into that same USB-C, a full desktop will appear on your monitor as well using your existing ethernet, mouse, keyboard and audio outputs. Something not possible with full sized HDMI ports.
Interesting; I have the S9 and I've done this by accident while charging, but the monitor only shows what's normally on the phone screen, it doesn't stretch to a "full desktop". The mouse does work though. Is there some setting I need to enable on my phone, or is my setup just different in some way?
There's also a setting to switch between modes under Settings -> Connections -> More connection settings -> HDMI mode.
The USB-C spec is an insane mess. The fact that every port used to be different is actually a feature, as it helps you identify which device supports what based on the ports it had. If you see an HDMI port on a laptop you can be sure it's going to output some kind of video signal over that. If you see Thunderbolt then you're sure the machine supports Thunderbolt. USB-C just jams all these incompatible standards into…
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I got one of these for just the 2 DisplayPort outputs: https://smile.amazon.com/Cable-Matters-Thunderbolt-DisplayPo... Then bought one of these from a coworker for $40 to drive all the other ports. I've been pretty lucky. (all being driven by a 2018 macbook pro) https://smile.amazon.com/Docking-Station-Laptop-Power-Delive... The first dongle is driving 2 Dell 23" 1080 screens, my 27" 4K screen is driven directly by a…
It is a little bit warm, but nothing concerning. I can leave my hand on it no problem.
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That world will not happen unless every single device including entry level phones and size-constrained devices somehow magically include all the circuitry required to handle all the different alternate modes. Also, as far as I understand there just isn’t enough pins to support all the modes at once so trade offs have to be made...
I can plug in a X1 carbon thinkpad in my monitor (some ultrawide dell) with USB-C support just fine. I then get video, audio, USB (the monitor has a hub where I have mouse and keyboard connected) _and_ charging/powering my laptop over a single link. Works today with Linux here! It's just magical, I tell you. The world started to happen already, it may not become all that good and 100% universal soon or anytime, but g…
Nintendo Switch uses the USB-C connector, but they're off spec which lead to people breaking their devices by connecting them to cabling/docks that weren't to the Switch's implementation. Think there was more nuance to it than just that, but grand scheme of things, the whole fiasco around that highlights concerns as no one wants to brick their devices.
This seems like a relatively easy fix that as you mention isn't 100%, but exists. On my MacBook Pro, the only reason I know my ports are Thunderbolt is because I know their specifications: the ports aren't marked in any particular way. The body/bodies involved with USB/Thunderbolt should make it a requirement that ports (and perhaps cables) indicate what it is capable of in a similar way to how USB 3.x TypeA/B cables have blue coloring within the port and the plug. At that stage, if I see a blue colored port or plug, I know I'm dealing with a 3.x USB one. If you refuse/can't meet the specification, you then shouldn't be able to use USB Type C for your product.
Instead, in their rush to get everything on USB Type C, they have seemingly tossed out any pretense of standards needing to be met to use the port and may stifle the port's adoption going forward.
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It's good that you know your ideal user-experience (developers are aware of it too), but the trade-offs will depend on what's happening on the developer's end, so dismissing developer difficulties is not conducive to a good consumer experience. Developer difficulty is a symptom of a more systemic problem, and it will usually affect the end-user through: higher-cost, lower-reliability, accumulation of technical debt,…
Not dismissing, I understand it is a hard problem. I'm simply saying that is the developer job to solve the issue. Similar thing happen in web development, there are tons of device, screen size, javascript framework, browser, os, all come with its own quirks. Is it suck ? Yes it is but it is my job as as a competent developer to manage all those complexity and solve the issue. From the user prescriptive, all they nee…
USB-C is a train-wreck for those of us who work in electronics design. USB-C's chipset support isn't all that good, it seems like. With USB 3 type A, you pretty-much just run your USB lines to the ports on your CPU. Simple, straightforward. Manufacturers are happy to do it, because it's dirt cheap and requires nothing except the connectors and maybe some ESD protection. USB-C is a different beast entirely. Just to us…