Steve Marcus / reuters
The USB-Implementers Forum (USB-IF) organization, which is responsible for developing the USB specification, has slightly changed the USB naming specification, hoping it will make it easier for consumers to understand. The “SuperSpeed” and “USB4” that were originally in the name will disappear, leaving only the speed, so “SuperSpeed USB 10Gbps” will become “USB 10Gbps”, and “USB4 20Gbps” will also become “USB 20 Gbps”.
USB-IF said that this is mainly because the use of names such as “SuperSpeed” has become difficult to describe the capabilities of the specification, and if the speed is added anyway, then these names have become cumbersome. Interestingly, this does not extend to USB 2.0 called “Hi-Speed” because with the same logic it should be renamed “USB 480Mbps”, and USB-IF is concerned that consumers will think that 480 is faster than 480Mbps. 20 or 10 is greater and thus misleading. At the same time, the icon of the cable will also be replaced. In addition to showing the highest speed, it will also show the highest supported charging wattage.
However, due to the openness of the USB-IF specification, except for a very small number of products that seek certification from the USB-IF, there is no mandatory use of the name, and manufacturers can actually call them whatever they like.And to be honest, it doesn’t solve the problem of confusing naming of the current USB specification itself, especially the USB-IF itself, which was only launched last month. USB 4 Version 2.0 It broke the naming method of the USB 3.0 era, which made people extremely headache.
The explanation of USB-IF is that for ordinary consumers, the naming method that only shows the speed will avoid the problem of the underlying USB specification, but even so, there are too many subsidiary specifications for USB, such as DisplayPort. mode, PD charging, etc., and this naming method fails to convey these information correctly. In the end, USB still requires consumers to do a little homework to understand what capabilities their devices support.