I’ve made a Cursed USB-C 2.0 device • Hacker News Board

Re: I’ve made a Cursed USB-C 2.0 device

#141

Post by xondono » Tue, Mar 23, 2021, 11:47 AM UTC

magicalhippo wrote: post #38

Hnaomyiph wrote: post #4

I feel like USB-C is cursed enough on its own. The sheer number of times I’ve had to explain to family members why just because the two USB-C ports on a laptop look the same, doesn’t mean they work the same.

> just because the two USB-C ports on a laptop look the same, doesn’t mean they work the same. This is already a solved problem[1] through color coding. Not sure why they couldn't use that scheme. Maybe combine a few to indicate things like DisplayPort and Thunderbolt capability, could have up to four quadrants for example. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC_System_Design_Guide#Color-c...

Except when your gizmo (or laptop) manufacturer founds out that the color they need is out of stock and replaces it with another color.

Re: I’ve made a Cursed USB-C 2.0 device

#142

Post by drewzero1 » Tue, Mar 23, 2021, 3:49 PM UTC

mortenjorck wrote: post #118

drewzero1 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This! Even just comparing USB-A 1.0 to what it replaced, it's hard to imagine a reversible plug like USB-C having been feasible/cost-effective to produce in the mid 90s. The PS/2 mouse and keyboard ports had pins of a similar size and spacing, but it was hard to orient the circular connectors. You could get the connector lined up and twist gently until the pins found their holes, but eventually you would bend a pin.…

This thread makes a convincing case for why the original USB connector couldn’t be reversible, but there’s a parallel question I’ve never seen addressed: Why couldn’t it have been asymmetrical? The physical design of FireWire was one of its many advantages, in that you could instantly tell, visually and by touch, which side was up by the beveled corners on one side of the plug. I’m guessing the answer here was again…

FireWire 400 was a great connector! I resisted using FW for the longest time mostly because the cables were more expensive and less common than USB. Once most of my computers had it it started to make more sense for faster file transfers and external drives. They were so much easier to plug in without looking than USB, but the FW800 and mini connector went to a more rectangular shape and somewhat lost that advantage.

I never ended up getting a camera or anything else that supported FW, but USB always seemed to work well enough for my (relatively light) use case.

Re: I’ve made a Cursed USB-C 2.0 device

#143

Post by floatboth » Tue, Mar 23, 2021, 4:34 PM UTC

Kliment wrote: post #139

floatboth wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it offers exactly things like allocating some lanes to DisplayPort. The unfortunate thing is that Thunderbolt was created, and instead of a simple way to make PCIe external, we have this Intel-created mess that tunnels PCIe over some cursed "MPLS-like network" or whatever it is. And it was completely Intel-proprietary until recently. At least now the spec is open.

The spec is still not open, as far as I can tell. The TB4 mode of USB4 appears to still be proprietary.

Well, sorry, wrong word. Not public open, but no longer Intel-exclusive.