WEBVTT

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No, not again.

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Are you telling me that there's now a second version of USB 4, which already carried over

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the super confusing naming scheme from USB 3?

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Well, I guess here's another Techquickie where we explain why it's not just called USB 5,

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or at least USB 4.1 or something.

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So what do you need to know? Unsurprisingly, it's fast, like really fast.

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USB 4 version 2.0 tops out at a whopping 80 gigabits per second,

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twice as fast as the existing USB 4 Gen 3 by 2.

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And yes, I'm getting a headache just saying that.

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That works out to just under 10 gigabytes per second.

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So it's actually faster than that PCI Express 4.0 X4 connection,

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the nice SSD inside your computer's probably using. And that's wild.

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Because the USB implementers form hasn't yet published the full specification,

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there aren't many details at this time as to how they pulled off this speed increase,

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other than a vague statement about a new physical layer architecture.

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But we did find out from our friends over at CalDigit that the main way they did this

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was by switching over to a signaling scheme called PAM.

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No, not the cooking spray. PAM basically means that instead

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of two possible digital signaling levels to represent a zero or a one,

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there are four signaling levels that can represent 00, 01, 10, or 11.

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So you're moving twice as much data at the same time.

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There still will be dedicated active 80 gigabit rated cables,

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which USB IF confirmed are aimed at folks who need to have longer cable runs.

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But to reiterate, you do not need a new cable

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to get the higher speed over shorter distances. Pretty good.

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This is great news for folks that need to move lots of data around quickly.

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Although this might make you think of people that shoot lots of high res video,

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the use cases potentially include everything from multifunction docks to external GPU enclosures

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to high performance displays. It's no coincidence that USB four, version two,

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has the same maximum bandwidth as the latest version of DisplayPort.

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80 gigabits per second is enough to drive three 4K screens at 90 frames per second

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with HDR support. So as displays that offer high resolutions

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and HDR become more common, along with content and games

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that can take advantage of them, this latest USB revision could get us closer

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to a one cable for everything future

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instead of having to use separate HDMI and DisplayPort connectors.

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And even more impressive is that instead of running USB four,

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V2 in the default mode,

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which provides 80 gigabits upstream and 80 downstream,

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you can instead run 120 down and 40 up,

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which could allow even higher resolutions and refresh rates.

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But this isn't yet an official part of the spec. So it remains to be seen how widespread support

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for it will actually be. And not only does USB four, version two,

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carry DisplayPort 2.0 signals, it also continues to support PCI Express and Thunderbolt.

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That's how it can support an external GPU. But how soon will it actually be available?

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It's not exactly a big secret that the theoretical maximums of USB

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and other high speed interconnects have so far outpaced

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how the vast majority of people use them. Keyboards and mice require very little bandwidth.

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Flash drives often aren't used for much more than a few photos and documents.

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And most of us these days only use the USB ports on phones for charging.

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Given this, it shouldn't be surprising that the USB promoter group has come out and said

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that the update is being released mostly for the benefit of developers at the moment.

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Even if it does seem useful to run several high bandwidth devices off a single port,

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it's hard to find mainstream laptops that even have any USB four version one ports,

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as you mostly have to look at the higher end of the laptop market if you wanna be on the bleeding edge.

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So USB four V2 won't exactly be consumer ready

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for the holiday season. And there isn't yet a timetable for when you'll be able to fork over a ton of money

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for a computer and or a display that actually supports it.

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Think of this more as a small step towards a more simple future

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without a boatload of connectors. Though there are absolutely no signs

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that the USB IF is interested in a future where the names of our USB connectors are equally simple.

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God, come on! You know what is simple though?

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Me thanking you for watching this video. Hey, like the video if you liked it,

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dislike it if you disliked it, check out our other videos, comment below with video suggestions,

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and don't forget to subscribe and follow the Techquickie.

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It's simple, you should be able to do it.