USB4: One cable to rule them all

14 Sep USB4: One cable to rule them all

It is one of the laws of tech that you can never find the right cable when you need it. What should be simple–pretty much every device you connect to your computer or phone uses a USB cable, so you’d expect there to be a universal cable–is instead a complete train wreck.

USB is a confusing scrabble of different port types, cable speeds, and hideously long names. I have a huge pile of USB cables that I have given up on ever organizing; instead, I just pull cables out at random until I find the one I need. 

Fortunately, a new standard is looking to clear up this confusion. USB4 will, the creators hope, bring order to this chaos, standardizing things down to a lone cable. But such a claim has been made before, for the original USB cables, for Firewire on Macs, for Thunderbolt, and for many other types of connection. So, is there reason to believe in USB4? Will it actually remove all the confusion?

My prediction: Yes, but it will take time–and you will still have to keep a pile of cables to hand. 

Ports of confusion

Let’s step back and look at the history. USB stands for universal serial bus, a standard created by a group of computer companies in 1996 to replace the serial ports and proprietary cables that connected devices like MP3 players to computers. The first cables were simple: a rectangular Type-A connector for the computer and a square Type-B one for the device. 

This group of companies is now known as the USB Implemeter’s Forum, the USB-IF. The companies in the group have changed, but it remains the place where they get together to set the standards. 

Over the years, their standard evolved. The year 2001 brought USB 2.0, which added the ability to send enough power over the connection to charge a small device. USB 3.0 in 2008 added different types of connectors that were more suited to small and thin devices like phones: Mini Type B and Micro-B. USB 3.1 in 2013 added larger connectors called Micro-A SuperSpeed and Micro-B Superspeed with more pins, providing more bandwidth and power capacity. 

This haphazard evolution meant that there were a bewildering variety of possible connections a device could use. Each device could need a cable with a Type B, Type B SuperSpeed, Type-C, Mini-A, Mini-B, Micro A, Micro A Superspeed, Micro B, or Micro B SuperSpeed plug. That’s how I ended up with my huge pile of cables: I never know when I might need a Micro B SuperSpeed cable for a portable hard drive, or a Mini-B cable for a cell phone. 

Meanwhile, because USB ports had limited power to charge the devices, companies came up with their own additions to help improve USB charge times. But these only worked if both the computer and the device supported the same standard. QuickCharge from Qualcomm, for instance, could charge a phone many times faster than a standard USB port, but only if you plugged the phone into one of the orange USB ports that supported QuickCharge. 

Things inside the computers were no better: For USB version 3.2 in 2017, the USB Implementers Forum (the group that oversees the USB standards) created different speeds of USB. There were three versions: SuperSpeed USB 20Gbps, SuperSpeed USB 10Gbps, and SuperSpeed USB 5Gbps. (The number is the data speed in Gigabits per second.)

To keep costs down, computer manufacturers built computers that had one or two of the fastest SuperSpeed USB 20Gbps ports, while the rest came outfitted with the cheaper slower types. Laptops would typically have a 20Gbps port on one side and a slower one on the other, with a tiny logo by the port to indicate which one was which. 

Finally (and even more confusingly) another standard came onto the scene with Thunderbolt. Created by Intel and Apple, Thunderbolt didn’t really take off outside the Mac world until version 3, which used a USB Type-C port. That didn’t mean it was compatible, though. You can plug a Thunderbolt device into a USB port and it will work, but the reverse isn’t true: Manufacturers had to pay a license fee to Intel to use Thunderbolt 3, and many didn’t do so to save money. 

So many offerings created a predictably confusing result.

You might buy an expensive portable hard drive and wonder why it took ages to copy files to it until you realized that your SuperSpeed USB 20Gbps drive was plugged into a SuperSpeed 5Gbps port. You would plug your cell phone into a USB port and it would charge incredibly slowly until you realized that you had plugged it into a USB port that could only deliver 7.5 Watts of power, while the QuickCharge 3.0 one next to it could deliver up to 36 Watts of power, charging your phone four times faster. 

One cable to rule them all

The solution comes in simplicity. The new Thunderbolt 4 and USB4 standards only support one type of connection, the USB Type-C. This connection can do everything: Every port can deliver or receive plenty of power so you can charge your laptop from a power adapter, then use the same USB4 port and cable to charge your phone. Every port can carry data at up to 40 Gbps, or 80Gbps in Version 2. Every port can drive multiple 8K or 4K monitors, making it easier to connect your laptop to external monitors. Plus, it can do all of these things at once: the same cable can carry video from your laptop to a monitor, while charging your laptop. 

The cables for Thunderbolt 4 and USB4 are also much easier. Both ends are identical and the USB Type-C plug is symmetrical, so you don’t have to worry about plugging it in the wrong way around or upside down: It will work the same either way. 

The ports are also backwards compatible. If you want to plug in a USB 3.2 device, you just need to buy an adapter for the physical port. 

So, your next laptop will come with Thunderbolt 4 USB4 ports that can do it all. You may already have it: Apple switched to them on all their laptops in 2021, while Dell offers it on their high-end XPS laptops, but not yet on their workhorse Inspiron line, which uses older style USB 3.2 ports. They will in time, though, because offering one port that does it all will be simpler and cheaper for them and for you. 

Personally, I would be thrilled to be rid of that knot of USB cables. However, even though Thunderbolt 4 and USB4 might improve the situation, we aren’t there yet. So, I’ll keep hold of the rat’s nest a little longer. 

Source: Fast Company