The USB 3.2 rebranding has caused a lot of confusion. Here’s some language from the source, which hopefully will clarify what’s what here.
From the official USB 3.2 language usage guidelines:
When referring to a product that is based on and compliant with the USB 3.2 specification, it is critical for manufacturers to clearly identify the performance capabilities of that device separately from other product benefits and/or physical characteristics.
This gives us:
- USB 3.2 Gen 1, up to 5 Gbps, AKA SuperSpeed USB
- USB 3.2 Gen 2, up to 10 Gbps, AKA SuperSpeed USB 10Gbps
- USB 3.2 Gen 2×2, up to 20 Gbps, AKA SuperSpeed USB 20Gbps
And:
SuperSpeed Plus, Enhanced SuperSpeed and SuperSpeed+ are defined in the USB specifications however these terms are not intended to be used in product names, messaging, packaging or any other consumer-facing content.
In a nutshell, think of USB 3.2 as SuperSpeed USB, with three flavors, Gen 1, Gen 2, and Gen 2×2, supporting 5, 10, and 20 Gbps respectively. And the 2×2 refers to Gen 2 over two 10 Gbps wires, for a total of 20 Gbps.
“A child of five would understand this. Send someone to fetch a child of five.”
– Groucho Marx
I looked up the definition of “SuperSpeed”: When a committee of people trying to come up with a fancy name like Thunderbolt but fail miserably.
USB is a mess. USB Type-C could have set a new standard but they screwed the pooch on it and now you have to guess what type of USB Type-C you have, do I have one that supports power or display mirroring…
So, which one is the blue one ?
So, which one is the blue one ?
What do you get when Compaq, DEC, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, NEC, and Nortel come together to design something really great & Super-useful?
SuperSpeed USB, of course.
‘Design by committee’ rarely ever works out well.
The USB-IF is composed of myopic idiots. I’m sure they’re all patting themselves on the back after having come up with this.
Those of you who are hoping for Apple to switch the iPhone from Lightning to USB C SuperSpeed Gen X Flux Capacitor Edition…. be careful what you wish for.
I would have just gone for “XXGB USB”.
SuperSpeed tells me nothing more than “at least 5GB USB3”, which is really “Default for anything that isn’t completely retro or just irrelevant about speed”.
Heck, I’d settle for “USB-Speed”.
Port-name is easily handled by adapters, if we’re in the pure-USB realm, not “the stuff C adds that B plugs just can’t cope with”.
Eh, Apple would just call it “USB C” and not care about labeling the speed category, because Apple doesn’t have to pretend that matters for a phone.
USB 3.x, Type A & B only. Type C is the smaller MBP compatible version.
They could still fix this. I mean, who cares about what standards document a particular port and speed comes from? As long as it’s clear, nobody.
Call it USB-(Port name)-(Speed).
Even though this is a stupid step backwards, they’re so close. Just drop “SuperSpeed,” drop the standard revision, include the speed even on the slower tech, and come up with (and always include) reasonable port names.
Sure, but you do need to be able to describe the adapter ends. 🙂
Like you should be able to get a USB-C male to -A female adapter. And if it’s rated at 20 Gbps, you should know it’s going to work for 5 Gbps. (Okay, that is probably a bad example as -A probably doesn’t support that but you know what I mean.)
Of course, this still doesn’t fix Thunderbolt 3 and stuff. Ugh. What a mess.