USB, it's the one cable that we all use every day and somehow still don't
understand. Why have there been eight revisions, at least five main shapes,
plus four or five rare ones, a whole rainbow of colors, and dozens of
different standards that are all still available today? Ever since Apple
committed hard to it in 1998, USB has been the go-to standard for connecting
peripherals. But obviously, needs of technology have changed a lot over that
time. >> up on the 30-year anniversary of USB.
So, if you could believe this, the original spec on USB 1.0,
the data rate was 1 and 1/2 megabits.
And there was little or no power. There was power, but it was very minuscule
power. And 30 years later, right, we're doing up to 120 gigabit per second data
rates, and we're delivering power up to
240 watts of power over USB Type-C cable
and connector. That was Jeff Ravencraft, the president of the USB Implementers
Forum. One of the people responsible for why USB, its naming conventions, shapes,
and supported capabilities are so confusing. And who's leading the charge
to make it better? A general in the decades-long battle between capability
and size. It all started with USB-A, whose shape
has remained consistent throughout most of USB's history. But in the early
2000s, it was the other end of the cable that was reaching its limitations as
smaller devices like MP3 players, remember those, and early flip phones
flooded the market. Mini and micro USB solved this problem by being a much
smaller, but were still limited by that slow USB 2.0 speed spec. And by this
point in the late 2000s, the world needed more power, baby. So, companies
were scrambling to fit as many pins in their ports as possible, leading to a
wide array of insane configurations that couldn't be clearly defined by shape.
So, what do humans do when they get confused? Color coding. Just like the
wizards in Lord of the Rings, color indicates capability. The original ports
were white and black to signify USB 1.0 and 2.0 respectively, but if that square
port on your computer is blue, that tells you it supports 5 gigabits per
second, the standard people used to refer to as USB 3.0. If it's teal or
red, it often signifies a port is running at a faster speed than the rest
of the devices IO or has other features like BIOS updates or even standby power.
You can start to see why color didn't catch on or at least have staying power.
Most brands these days have co-opted color coding to make their products more
aesthetically pleasing. >> [clears throat] >> Razer. Meaning USB colors are about as
easy to understand as Silmarillion lore. But if we can't rely on numbers and the
shapes are not really indicative of speed, then what about generations?
Thankfully, we have the USB-IF who are getting to the bottom of it.
>> We've done the focus group studies behind the two-way mirror with novice
consumers, with intermediate consumers from a tech standpoint, from consumers
who thought they were technically savvy. None of them had a clue about any of
this stuff. So, what we've done, we've boiled it down to number one, consumers
want to know how fast can it go? And how much power can it give me?
That's all they want to know. And so, our marks today are focused on data rate
and power. You might be thinking, I'm a genius nerd. What kind of dumb focus
group couldn't tell all these names apart? Well, let us know if this makes
sense to you. First, there's the original USB 1. We barely see it these
days, but it's still compatible with newer generations. Then there's the
high-speed USB 2.0 from way back in 2000. Being far more common than USB 1,
you can safely consider this your baseline slowest USB speed at 480
megabit per second. This is fine for a mouse, a keyboard, or a cheap flash
drive, but potentially slow for modern data. The naming problem really started
with the next generation, which wasn't known to consumers as USB 3.0, but
rather as SuperSpeed. It hit a blistering 5
gigabits per second and didn't slow down. Boy, howdy, was that fast. You
could transfer a torrented Blu-ray quality version of the extended Lord of
the Rings trilogy in 6 minutes flat. But, just because SuperSpeed might have
been a legit description, doesn't mean it was understandable to consumers. And
oh boy, the names only get wackier from here. We'll go through them all right
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You can even book a demo with them before you decide to try it. So, use our
link for a free 15-day trial with no credit card required. As technology
improved in the mid-2010s, the USB Implementers Forum decided to constantly
rename the standard each time they introduced a new speed. And they
overshot a little. The original SuperSpeed USB 3.0 was renamed to USB
3.1 Gen 1 in 2013. And then, 6 years
later, when it became clear that the world wasn't ending, they updated the
spec and renamed it again to USB 3.2 Gen
1. It's the same speed, just three different internal names over 10 years.
It's worth noting that these cables are supposed to be labeled with the logo
denoting SuperSpeed USB on the connector itself. But, [music] like what
eventually happened with colors, manufacturers didn't really care enough
to follow the rules. Or, they just didn't want to pay the USB-IF for
certification. When the technology doubled its speed to 10 gigabits per
second, they updated the spec again, and the pattern repeated itself. This new,
faster version was initially called USB 3.1 Gen 2 under the branding of
SuperSpeed Plus. Then, with the release of the next standard, it was
retroactively renamed to USB 3.2 Gen 2
while still keeping its logo. Today, it's referred to as SuperSpeed 10
gigabit per second. Rule of thumb, if you see Gen 2, you know it's a 10
gigabit per second connection. The new 3.2 title on the box did not mean a new
speed. It only meant the entire family of names had been updated. What is going
on in that war room, Jeff? What's in your mind?
You would think that after all this, they would finally get the hint. But,
like Square Enix with Kingdom Hearts, the names got a little out of hand with
the real speed breakthrough, 20 gigabits per second. This speed was a
game-changer and a name-changer, kind of. Achieved by introducing dual lane
technology that runs two 10 gigabit tunnels simultaneously, the standard
body created a completely new, technical-sounding name, USB 3.2 Gen 2
by 2. That 2 by 2 >> [music] >> is the key, meaning two generation two
lanes. This is the first time the generation number actually described the
new capability. But, that's not what the USB-IF actually wanted you to see on the
packaging. They tried to make SuperSpeed Plus USB 20 gigabit per second happen.
However, it barely ever shows up these days. It's also worth pointing out that
they retroactively renamed the other revisions to have the number of lanes
indicated in the title. So, now we have USB 3.2 Gen 1 by 1, USB 3.2 Gen 2 by 1,
and USB 3.2 Gen 2 by 2 to denote their
respective speeds and lanage. Most importantly though, 20 gigabit per
second brings the transfer time on Lord of the Rings down to a minute and a
half. That's not even enough time for second breakfast. Luckily, the USB-IF
finally realized in 2019 that those names weren't catching on and all those
3.2 versions have started to be superseded by USB4, spelled without a
space and without a .0 just to be different. This upgrade unlocks truly
high-end speeds with a mandatory base
speed of 20 gigabits per second, but a top-tier version known by the name USB4
40 gigabit per second that doubles the speed to, well, 40 gigabit per second.
Like it says in the name. Holy They did it! THEY DID IT!
AND IF THAT WASN'T FAST ENOUGH, the absolute latest spec, USB4 version 2.0,
can hit a staggering 80 gigabits per second. [music] Wait, the version NAMES
ARE BACK? OKAY, so the name on the
spec is still bad, but thankfully, the USB-IF has simplified USB's required
label to just state the speed. All you have to do is to look for USB and
whatever speed you want on the cable packaging. Finally, some clarity, at
least for the labels. And full transparency, our company does sell USB
cables and ours do have [music] the specs right on the plug. To the USB-IF's
credit, one thing they've refused to sacrifice as speeds and power continue
to climb is backwards compatibility. Thank god. Can you imagine how crazy
this world would be? Jeff explained why that's always step one when designing a
new USB version. And by the way, USB4 version 2 is backward compatible all the
way back to USB 1.0. First off, that
makes it very simple and convenient [music] for
consumers. Uh now, granted, it's only going to operate at the capabilities of
the older product, right? But it doesn't require a consumer
to re-buy all new stuff, right? And so,
um that's our bread and butter is backward compatibility. Now, all these
speeds relate to data, but an equally important standard has evolved alongside
it. USB power [music] delivery, otherwise known as USB PD. A cable's
speed is measured in gigabit per second, but it's charging capacity is measured
in watts. With USB PD, a single cable
can now safely deliver up to 240 watts
of power to quickly charge a laptop. The ability to carry both high-speed data
and high-wattage power is the true innovation of the USB-C connector.
A huge upgrade enabled by the size of the port, but that topic is big enough
for its own upcoming video. So, stay subscribed for that. If you're looking
to dive deeper into the cable rabbit hole today, you should check out our
video on Oculink. It's surprising how straightforward that cable is
considering its niche use cases. Also,
super powerful.