After having been in a lull for little more than two years, it appears that the USB-IF is finally announcing that the new USB 3.2 standard will be made available this year. Along with the relevant USB 3.2-capable controllers.
Along with the announcement, USB-IF also renamed its USB lineup as listed below:
- USB 3.0 is now USB 3.2 Gen 1 with a 5Gbps data connection
- USB 3.1 is now USB 3.2 Gen 2 with a 10Gbps data connection
- USB 3.2 is now USB 3.2 Gen 2xe with a 20Gbps data connection
As the port still uses the USB-C connector, it is backwards compatible with current USB 3.2 Gen 2 devices. However, with supported devices, we can see a theoretical top speed of about 20Gbps, or approximately 2.5GB/s. For context, at that speed, a 4GB file would complete a transfer in just two seconds with the new connection.
With the announcement, we can expect PC components and motherboard manufacturers to feature bake in the new connectors into their upcoming products. It is predicted, though, that the earliest products with the new USB standard will only be showcased sometime in the second half of 2019.
Even so, with this announcement, 2019 is shaping up to becoming a speedy year. As more high-speed devices will be introduced in the market, and not just limited to Thunderbolt 3. Additionally, we may also see cheaper high-speed devices appear on the market, such as external drives and card readers that don’t necessarily require the lightning-fast Thunderbolt 3 connectivity.
