The USB Promoter Group has published the final specifications of USB4 2.0 and the logos that will represent it. As expected, the main novelty is the increase in data transfer performance up to 80Gbpsa bandwidth that Intel is working on for Thunderbolt 5.
The new standard will be backwards compatible with the initial version of USB4 and also with the previous ones, USB 3.2, USB 2.0 and Thunderbolt 3. Due to licensing issues, USB4 2.0 will not initially be compatible with Thunderbolt 4.
Another of its great advantages is that can be used with the same current cables, although other new specific ones will also be marketed. In this way, using PAM3 signal encoding, 80Gbps connections will be possible over newly defined 80Gbps active USB-C cables or existing 40Gbps passive cables.
The specifications have been updated to support USB Type-C (the most modern connector of the standard) and USB Power Delivery (USB PD), the protocol for fast power charging that allows the use of USB-C cables and connectors to recharge devices with a power up to 100 watts.
The architecture update also allows upgrade older versions like USB 3.2 which will now exceed 20 Gbps. In addition, they will take better advantage of the increase in available bandwidth and will integrate better with internal PCIe Gen 4 interfaces and also the latest DisplayPort 2.1 version that has been presented this week.
New logos for USB4 2.0
As the name USB4 2.0 can be confused with USB 2.0, which is 20 years old and reaches a maximum of 480 Mbps, the organization responsible for the standard has published a series of logos that all products certified for this standard must carry. The new peripheral interconnect port standard will debut in 2023.
