The USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) greenlit the final technical specifications for the USB4 standard earlier this Fall. Given the confusion and frustration around the increasingly fragmented USB3 standard, this promises to be a more streamlined option for industry professionals with even better performance.
USB4 will use the Thunderbolt protocol, and is meant to support transfer speeds up to 40GBs, more than double the USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 standard. It’s designed to be compatible with Thunderbolt 3, and is meant to be backwards compatible with USB 3.2 and 2.0 devices with the use of an adapter.
USB-IF states that the new technology standard will be able to connect two 4K monitors or one 5k display, and can deliver 100W of power to connected devices. Like Thunderbolt 3, a USB4 connection will be enough to power an external GPU.
A less technical but still key feature of USB4 technology is to streamline the current range of offerings between USB3 and Thunderbolt 3 into one main standard with a consistently higher rate of data transfer than any of its predecessors. This should be a major boost for data-intensive tasks like editing, animation, and compositing.
The final approval of the specifications means that USB4 products will most likely be hitting the market in 2020, although high costs and a lack of familiarity may slow the standard’s adoption in the marketplace. Overall, the increased performance and consolidation of multiple USB standards should be a very good thing for studios looking to enhance productivity.
If you’re wondering whether to hold out for USB4 hardware or whether or not your business would benefit from being an early adopter, contact Nodal and let us know!