Before opening this article, let me introduce you to perhaps the most familiar stranger in your life – USB. did you know that? In fact, the full English name of USB is Universal Serial Bus, the Chinese translation is Universal Serial Bus.
The translation into human-understandable language is: unified by many industry leaders who agreed to integrate a variety of protocols together to achieve the plug-and-play interface technology for computers and external devices.
With the popularity of new smartphones, phones have gradually become an important and indispensable assistant in our daily lives. This has led directly to Type C becoming the most familiar type of interface in our daily lives.
Image source Pixabay
In fact, calling it Type C is not accurate enough, this common phone charging cable interface should be USB Type C. But have you ever thought, USB Type C is so widely known, where are USB Type A and USB Type B?
The company’s main goal is to provide the best possible solution to the problem. Or is it that this C does not represent the “first few generations”, but has other meanings?
Actually, the answer to both questions is no. Both Little A and Little B are there, and C is indeed the one that follows Little A and Little B in order. Here, let’s get reacquainted with USB Type A and USB Type B.
Here one more sentence, like Type A, Type B, and Type C is actually talking about the version of the USB interface form, the performance of the interface looks different; and 2.0, 3.0 these are talking about the USB interface specification version. Using data to speak, USB2.0’s theoretical bandwidth 480Mbps, while USB3.0 is up to 5Gbps, so there are leaps and bounds in data transfer capability and transmission speed.
So, let’s get reacquainted: the standard USB, whose full name should be: USB Type A. From USB 2.0 to the USB 3.0 era, although its performance has been improving, its appearance has not changed. It is important to note that the commonly used USB Type A interface is also divided into male and female connectors.
Take our common charging cable, for example, this week’s square, smooth on all sides can be inserted into the charger plug or the computer end is the male end. Admittedly, the male end is generally used in the mouse, keyboard and other small peripheral devices, or as the end of the cable. And the following four sides with U-shaped shrapnel is the female, it is often used in the host or hub and other top-end devices.
In the USB 2.0 era, the USB Type B still looks a bit naive with a big forehead, but in the USB 3.0 era, the USB Type B has become very small with bangs.
Moreover, the usage scenario of USB Type B is somewhat different from USB Type A, such as printers, scanners, and other larger external devices. In fact, USB Type B is also divided into two kinds of male and female, the male is very common, and the female is relatively rare.
However, if we talk about the working performance of USB Type B and USB Type A interfaces, they are actually 4 pins, so the difference in functional performance is not very big. As for why there are two types of USB Type B and USB Type A, I guess it may be to achieve the division of different functions of the interface.
The USB Type C, which appears after USB 3.1, has a smaller size than Type A and Type B from the appearance, and the design does not distinguish between the top and bottom, so the plugging speed will be faster and more convenient to use.
The performance of USB Type C, which comes with 24 pins, allows for more types and faster data transfer and exchange. It uses the USB 3.1 standard, so the theoretical upper limit of data transfer is 10Gbps, which is double that of USB 3.0.
The standard size cable with Type C connector can also pass current, and also supports “USB PD” which is beyond the existing USB power supply capacity, and can provide charging power up to 100W, truly realizing “5 minutes charging, 2 hours talking” for smartphones.
USB Type A and USB Type B | Source: bbs.21ic.com
Type A-C | Source: Zhihu
Through these two diagrams above, we can clearly see that it is not true that a certain type of interface absolutely corresponds to USB 3.0 or USB 2.0, but generally, those that meet the requirements of USB 3.0 are also designed to be backward compatible with USB 2.0 or even USB 1.0 compatible.
But in comparison, the USB Type C interface that we are seeing more and more often now can achieve a number of functions that other USB connector types can’t. Not only can smartphones and laptops be powered quickly via USB, but they can also achieve increasingly fast transfer speeds.
So, will it be the world of USB Type C in the near future? Sang Ning thinks it is very likely, so let’s wait and see!
