The USB Prompter Group revealed it USB 4 version 2.0 on September 1, 2022. The upcoming standard promises twice the performance of the original USB 4, while retaining the same USB Type-C cable that is increasingly being adopted.
Most people may wonder why they have never heard of USB 4, the standard that aims to replace USB 4.0 version 2.0. Announced in August 2019, it was designed to double the performance of the widely used USB 3.2 standard.
The first USB 4 products took years to become available to the public, and it may take quite a bit longer for them to become widely used. USB 4 cables and products such as docking stations or external hard drives are available, but most products still ship with USB 3.2 or even older standards.
Key features of USB 4 in version 2.0 include:
- Up to 80 Gbps operation.
- Type-C cables.
- Updates to data protocols to make better use of the increase in available bandwidth
- USB data architecture updates now allow USB 3.2 data throughput to exceed 20 Gbps.
- Updated with the latest versions of the DisplayPort and PCIe specifications.
- Backward compatible with USB4 version 1.0, USB 3.2, USB 2.0 and Thunderbolt 3.
USB standards look set to become less confusing in the coming years. The connections remain the same, which is great for users, who until now had to constantly source new cables. Focusing on USB Type-C will reduce this need significantly, and older USB standards will disappear.
Of course, it will take years before the first USB 4 version 2.0 cables and products become widely available on the market.
