Getty Images | Oric Lawson
USB has come a long way since the ’90s’ 12Mbps farewell to USB-B and moving away from USB-A in favor of the slim, reversible USB-C connector. Data transfer rates have increased so dramatically that we can run powerful setups with high-resolution screens, fast external storage, and many other devices in the USB Implementers Forum’s latest open standard, USB4.
USB4 unifies the USB and Intel Thunderbolt protocols for the first time, expanding the capabilities of USB while dividing the technology into different performance classes. The addition of features such as dynamic bandwidth allocation ensures that USB4 is by far the most advanced USB generation. Although there are computers, docking stations, and cables that support USB4, we haven’t seen it yet everything The protocol can do, like running an unbranded Intel eGPU.
With all that going on, we thought it would be the perfect time to highlight the latest and greatest generation of USB. We’ve put together a helpful reminder of all things USB4, detailing the various key aspects of the spec, from how it differs from other specs to protocol tunneling, Alt mode, and power delivery.
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