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0 pointsmonocasa10y ago0 comments

But, ostensibly, there's going to be thunderbolt devices soon which, while having a USB Type-C plug, won't work in a regular USB port despite the Type-C plug.

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ghshephard10y ago

Given that USB 3.1 + Type C ports support USB PD (100 Watts), and 10 Gigabit signaling rate (7.1 Gigabits demonstrated transmit) - the need for thunderbolt devices will be so excessively rare for the average consumer as to be a non-issue.

For the few Pro Users who Specifically paid a small fortune for their thunderbolt device - they will certainly know which port to plug it into, there will be zero confusion.

What's nice (awesome) about this, though, is that when Apple/Microsoft/Sony/Asus/whoever decides to differentiate their high-end products by offering Thunderbolt 3 ports that people will rarely have a use for, they can actually make use of them immediately as USB 3.1 ports. Right now I have a MacBook Air w/2 USB + 1 Thunderbolt Port. I have too carry Ethernet Dongles for both Thunderbolt and USB to cover the situation in which I run out of ports and need ethernet. And I frequently run into a situation in which I've used up my two USB ports, and my third adapter isn't thunderbolt (I know, I should carry a Thunderbolt -> USB adapter, but god, I carry so many cables already).

In this new world - I would have three, fully functional USB ports, with one of them also capable of functioning as a thunderbolt port should I have a Thunderbolt peripheral.

Awesomeness.

bryanlarsen10y ago

Source? Sure, it's theoretically possible that a TB3 5K@60Hz monitor won't work when plugged into a USB Type C port. But there would be no good reason for that, it should downgrade smoothly to either 5K@30Hz or 4K@60Hz.

monocasaOP10y ago

I'm running off of the assumption that Thunderbolt continues to use a different physical layer (which it pretty much has to to go faster than USB 3.1), and is piggy backing on USB Type-C's "Alternate Mode" which lets you negotiate different physical layers that you have a transceiver for.

EDIT: Looks like my assumption is correct:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_Type-C

bryanlarsen10y ago

Sure, but why wouldn't the TB3 transceivers be designed to support USB 3.1 as well? Those transceivers have a wide range of dynamic adaptation to support high speed transmission, so it doesn't seem like much of a stretch to adapt to USB 3.1 signalling levels & protocol.

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ghshephard10y ago

For the few Pro Users who Specifically paid a small fortune for their thunderbolt device - they will certainly know which port to plug it into, there will be zero confusion.

In this new world - I would have three, fully functional USB ports, with one of them also capable of functioning as a thunderbolt port should I have a Thunderbolt peripheral.

Awesomeness.

bryanlarsen10y ago

monocasaOP10y ago

EDIT: Looks like my assumption is correct:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_Type-C

bryanlarsen10y ago

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