The USB 3.0 Promoter Group has announced an update to the USB 3.0 specification – enter USB 3.2. When the USB Type-C cables were designed, they were supposed to work in multi-lane operations. With the new USB 3.2 spec, this is finally going to be a reality and should show a marked performance increase from the original USB 3.0 spec.

With the new USB 3.2 specification, a host with USB 3.2 and a USB 3.2 device connected to it via a USB-C cable can now realize two lanes of 5Gbps or two lanes of 10Gbps data transfers. “When we introduced USB Type-C to the market, we intended to assure that USB Type-C cables and connectors certified for SuperSpeed USB or SuperSpeed USB 10 Gbps would, as produced, support higher performance USB as newer generations of USB 3.0 were developed,” said Brad Saunders, USB 3.0 Promoter Group Chairman. “The USB 3.2 update delivers the next level of performance.”

In real terms, when using a USB 3.2 host and device with the correct cable, you can expect over 2 GB/sec data transfer performance. That completely blows away real world USB 3.0 speeds of 5Gbps or around 640MBps. 10Gbps transfers translate to nearly 1 gigabyte per second. Let that sink in for a moment.

Of course, the new spec is aimed at developers for now. You will need a USB 3.2 host, a same-spec’d device, and a certified USB-C cable for the data to run through, and there are precious few of those around, if any. But this will make it to market soon, and we’ll be very happy when it does.

VIA: USB 3.0 PG

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