Everything you wanted to know about the USB Type-C, but you were afraid to ask

Good day, Geektimes! Have you heard about the USB Type-C? The very two-sided, fast-fashioned youth, charging the new MacBook, makes the hair smooth and silky, and promises to become a new connection standard for the next ten years?

So, first of all, this is the type of the socket, not the new standard. The standard is called USB 3.1. Second, you need to talk about the new USB standard, and Type-C is just a nice bonus. To understand what the difference is between a USB 3.1 and what is behind Type C, how to charge a full laptop with a USB cable, and what else can I do with the new USB Type-C:

Briefly about the main

USB as standard appeared almost 20 years ago. The first specifications for USB 1.0 were introduced in 1994 and addressed three key issues: the unification of the connector, which connected the expanding hardware PC functions, the simplicity of the user, the high rate of data transfer to and from the device.

Despite the specific advantages of a USB connection in front of PS/2, COM, and LPT ports, the popularity was not immediately reached. The explosive growth of the USB was felt at the beginning of 2000th, with cameras, scanners and printers first connected to it, followed by flash drives.

In 2001, the first commercial implementation of the USB, which we are familiar with: Version 2.0, emerged. We've been enjoying them for the 14th year, and it's relatively simple.

USB 2.0

Any USB 2.0 cable and below has a 4 copper conductor. Two of them are fed, the other two are the data. USB cables (by standard) are strongly oriented: one of the ends must connect to the host (that is, the system that will manage the connection) and is called type-A, the other to the device, it is called type-B. Of course, there are sometimes no cable devices (such as flash drives) at all, the "to host" socket is positioned directly on the board.

There is a special chip on the host side: a USB controller (on a desktop computer, it can be part of system logic, and it may be rendered as an external microcircuit). It is it that initializes the bus, determines the connection speed, the order and schedule of the data packets, but it's all the details. We're most interested in the classic USB-format connectors and connectors.

The most popular connector used by all was the USB Type-A Classic size: It is located on grabs, USB modems, and the ends of the mouse and keyboard wires. Full USB Type-B is slightly less common: printers and scanners are typically connected to this cable. The mini version of USB Type-B is still often used in Kardriderah, digital cameras, and USB hubs. The micro version of the Type-B effort by the European standardization became the de facto most popular socket in the world: all relevant mobile phones, smartphones and tablets (except for one fruit Company) are released with a USB Type-B micro connector.

With USB 2.0, it's more and less clear. The problem with the standard was that there were few two conductors for data transmission, and the specifications developed in the middle of the first decade did not involve the transmission of large currents by power supply chains. External hard drives have suffered the most from such restrictions.

USB 3.0

To improve the performance of the standard, a new USB 3.0 specification was developed which contained the following key differences:

Five additional contacts, four of which provide additional lines of communication;

Increase the maximum bandwidth from 480 Mbps to 5 GB/C;

Increase the maximum current from 500 Ma to 900 MA.