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Windows 11 now supports USB4 at 80Gbps, also known as USB 4 2.0 | Faster USB4 devices could start appearing in 2024 (www.techspot.com)

submitted 8 months ago by L4s to c/technology

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Windows 11 now supports USB4 at 80Gbps, also known as USB 4 2.0 | Faster USB4 devices could start appearing in 2024::undefined

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[–] WhatAmLemmy 90 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

These are all equivalent, which is dumb as fuck:

3.0 / 3.1 Gen 1 / 3.2 Gen 1
3.1 Gen 2 / 3.2 Gen 2 / 3.2 Gen 2x1

I suspect the corporations that influence USB did this specifically to confuse consumers (increase sales) when they could have told them exactly what they were getting e.g:

USB3 5Gb
USB3 10Gb
USB4 500Mb/100w
USB4 20Gb/100w
USB4 40Gb/20w
USB4 80Gb/240w

The jump from 3 to 4 could've indicated the change to USB-C ports, which should be the greatest breaking change for USB (otherwise it's no longer USB). The "/Xw" could've been used to indicate PD max watts.

This can also continue indefinitely, like "USB4 10Tb/500w", "USB5 5Pb/2kw", etc.

What I'd really like to see are regulations that require manufacturers to specify the actual speeds the specific component(s) model/batch have achieved under real world testing — both best case scenario and averages — as the theoretical limit is completely irrelevant; with wild variation between cables of the same specs.

[–] [email protected] 41 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Actually the naming scheme you propose e.g. USB4 80Gb is the real naming scheme! It's officially what the specification demands manufacturers label their products. "USB4 version 2" and so on are explicitly only the names of the internal standards that only concern people writing drivers or designing chips.

I have no idea what tech journalist are smoking. This has been a problems for so many years but they keep using the internal names. I mean nobody is complaining about having to always say "IEEE 802.11bn" instead of WI-FI 8

[–] WhatAmLemmy 15 points 8 months ago

Lol. Can't say I'm surprised. But why do you blame tech journalists instead of the manufacturers and marketers who promote their products using internal spec names?

I just looked at the last 5 USB enclosures and cables I bought. All of the boxes and marketing display the internal spec name prominently. 3/5 boxes only mention the speed once, as a bullet point in the features section...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago

Undoubtedly the best naming scheme. The x2 suffix should not be dropped tho, because it shows that USB and the alt-DP mode can be used at the same time.