USB 4 is official: double speed compared to USB 3.2 and Thunderbolt 3 integrated

USB Promoter Group has announced the arrival of a new release of the USB specification, with the news that follow a very short distance the presentation of the USB 3.2 standard . USB4 was born following the choice of Intel to open licenses on Thunderbolt technology , and in fact converts USB and Thunderbolt specifications within a single standard. As a result, we could see a wider spread of Thunderbolt-based peripherals, such as dock and external GPUs, which will become cheaper.

USB4 will be based on Thunderbolt and will support a variety of features including a data transfer capacity of approximately 40 Gbps , then double that of the latest USB 3.2, and can be used to drive video streams or to charge devices. The exact specifications will be released in the coming months, with scheduled timing by mid-2019. It is important to note that the new interface will be based on the USB Type-C connector and will be backwards compatible with USB 2.0, USB 3.2 and Thunderbolt 3 interfaces.

To achieve maximum performance it will be necessary to use certified cables for 40 Gbps operation, and at the moment around 50 companies are working on the new protocol. The easiest way to see USB4 today is to do it as if it were a Thunderbolt 3 open to all producers for free , without the need to pay royalties to Intel. Thunderbolt 3 will still be proposed by Intel as a separate technology, but the benefits will only be on the level of support on technical issues.

With the contribution of the Thunderbolt 3 standard, USB4 should be able to bring the advantages even on the most economical PC platforms , allowing more manufacturers to take advantage of the standard and use the USB Type-C connector for the vast majority of devices with the goal of abandoning the older standards. On the basis of the features of Thunderbolt 3 it is easy to suppose that also USB4 will be able to manage, on the display side, two interfaces up to 4K resolution, or a single 5K interface.

Although the final specifications will be released in mid-2019, it is very likely that we will not see the first USB4 devices before 2020 or even before 2021 according to the current plans of the USB Promoter Group.