Twice the speed of Thunderbolt 4, a major upgrade to USB4 2.0

The USB promotion organization released a new generation of USB4 2.0 standard on the evening of 9.1. The interface speed has been increased from the current 40Gbps to 80Gbps, which is double that of Thunderbolt 4. The complete specification is expected to be announced at the USB developer conference in November.

The USB4 standard has been in existence for two or three years. Unfortunately, the popularization speed is very slow. Its main technology comes from Thunderbolt 3 provided by Intel, and the speed can reach 40Gbps. However, Intel itself has launched a better Thunderbolt 4, which has almost replaced USB on mobile platforms. Interface, AMD also supports USB4 on the Ryzen 6000 notebook, but the support of notebook manufacturers is still limited.

This time the USB4 2.0 standard has been upgraded a lot. In fact, it can be called USB5. The official name is still very low-key this time, and it is named USB4 2.0. The biggest change is that the interface speed has been increased to 80Gbps, which is twice the speed of Thunderbolt 4. The current fastest physical interface speed.

However, the new 80Gbps requires an active cable, which will obviously increase the price of the new cable, and may only be supported by some high-end products in the future.

Existing 40Gbps passive cables will continue to be supported, while the structure of the DP, PCIe and USB 3.2 protocols will be modified to better utilize the increased bandwidth.

Finally, the USB4 2.0 standard will remain backward compatible, and the USB4 1.0, USB 3.2, USB 2.0 and Thunderbolt 3 interfaces are also compatible.

There is also good news for end users, that the new interface naming is no longer as confusing as the previous USB 3.0/3.1/3.2, the USB organization will strengthen branding and marketing this time, and the USB 80Gbps cable will have a separate certification label.

In this respect, it can be said to be very good. The confusing naming in the past few years can make everyone miserable. Just looking at the standard naming, you don't know the speed of the interface.