INTERCONNECTION FEATURE
THE NEW USB TYPE-C CONNECTOR: How did we ever do without it?
127 different devices can be connected to a single USB port simultaneously), elimination of the need for a separate power connection in many instances, some degree of backwards compatibility as the standard has evolved, low cost, and ease of use. The USB Type-C connector looks like a
Micro USB one but it’s just a little bigger at 8.3mm by 2.5mm. Its introduction is timely - the SupersSpeed USB 3.1, 10Gbp/s spec was announced in 2013. To put things into context, at 10Gbp/s, a 25GB HD movie can be transferred in around 35 seconds. With the old USB 1.0, the process would take 9.3 hours.
Alan Jermyn, VP of European Marketing at Avnet Abacus explores how the latest USB standard will remove the last irritation from the world’s most successful connector system, and cut cable clutter too
ack in April 2014, at the Intel Developers Forum in Shenzhen, China, the USB Type-C connector made its debut. The new connector, which is expected to become commercially available this year, features a particularly significant technical advance – it’s vertically symmetrical so it doesn’t matter which way up you put the plug into the socket. This may seem like a trivial feature but, like air conditioning in cars, once you’ve had it, you never want to be without it. Ask anyone who has experienced the joy of Apple’s vertically symmetrical Lightning connector, introduced with the iPhone 5. Little things mean a lot, especially when they remove big irritations. And the USB Type-C connector will be even better, it will produce a little audible click when it’s properly seated, something that’s missing from the Lightning connector.
Usblyzer.com gives a detailed history of the development of USB connectivity. It’s easy to forget the USB was really the start of plug-and-play for computers and peripherals. Before its introduction, connecting anything to a PC involved a level of hardware and software expertise that generally resulted in a call to the company IT specialist. An alliance of Compaq, DEC, IBM, Intel,
B
Microsoft, NEC and Nortel was formed to develop the USB standard in 1995. USB
connectivity then developed in three main ways: different form factors to suit different applications (think printers, digital cameras etc.), higher speed data transfer, and higher current carrying capacity, primarily a consideration for battery charging. The original USB spec boasted a low- speed transfer rate of 1.5Mbit/s and full- speed rate of 12Mbit/s. The USB 2.0 spec, released in 2000, saw the addition of a high-speed rate of 480Mbps, which effectively headed off a challenge by IEEE1394, Apple’s FireWire. USB 3.0, announced in 2008, saw a further 10-fold leap in data rates, which rose to 4.8Gbit/s. While there’s no definitive answer to how
many USB connections are out there today, a 2008 presentation at the USB Developers Conference suggested an installed base of six billion units at that time, growing at over two billion units per annum. That would mean some 16 billion connections exist now. It makes USB the most successful interface in the history of computing with more than two connections for every person on the planet. The key drivers of this success were the
initial standardisation and consolidation, the ability to hot-swap without having to re-boot your PC each time you connected a new device (remember having to do that?), expandability (whereby, in theory,
/ ELECTRONICS Figure 1:
The new USB Type C connector
USB TYPE-C But this is not the end of the USB Type-C story. On September 22nd 2014, the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) announced the publication of the DisplayPort Alternate Mode (“Alt Mode”) on the USB Type-C Standard. It means that a USB Type-C cable-connector assembly will be able to deliver DisplayPort audio/video at 4K resolution or more, SuperSpeed USB data and up to 100Watts of power over a single, bi-directional cable with reversible plug orientation. Tablets, computers, docking stations, smartphones and displays will be able to use a USB Type-C connector at both ends to provide all the required connectivity. Video devices that support DisplayPort Alt Mode on a USB Type-C connector will simply need an adaptor to drive an HDMI, DVI or a good old-fashioned VGA display. Just like USB, DisplayPort uses packetised data and differential AC-Coupled signal lanes to carry high-speed data with an embedded clock. The same circuits can carry either SuperSpeed USB data at up to 10Gbps per lane, or DisplayPort at up to 8.1Gbps per lane (DisplayPort 1.3 Standard). The first implementations will probably use existing DisplayPort 1.2a capabilities to support 5.4Gbps across all four high-speed lanes for up to 4K (4096 x 2160) display resolutions. Of course, we’re going to have to wait a
while to see USB Type-C connectors on products. It will take a few months for connector manufacturers to design their products and get them into production.
Avnet Abacus
www.avnet-abacus.eu 01628 512 940
Enter 207 ELECTRONICS | FEBRUARY 2015 23
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