Friday, October 1st 2021
USB-IF Brings New USB Certification Logos to Help Consumers Buy the Right Cables and Chargers
Last week, the EU Commission announced that it's working towards making USB-C the universal standard for charging portable electronics and this week, the USB-IF is bringing new Certified USB Type-C cable and Certified USB4 logos to help consumers figure out what is what. However, the USB-IF is also pointing out that consumers should only buy Certified USB products from trusted sources, suggesting that there are a lot of products in the market that don't meet the various USB specifications.
The new logos can be seen below and the first one is for devices that support 40 Gbps speeds over USB. Keep in mind that although USB4 is broadly based on Thunderbolt 3, the cables aren't going to be exactly the same, but that some USB4 implementations can also support Thunderbolt 4, just to complicate things a little bit extra. This logo can also be used with 40 Gbps capable ports on devices.
The second new logo is for cables supporting 240 W charging, i.e. 48 V at 5 A. This is a lot higher Voltage than current cables, that top out at either 20 V and 5 A, as long as the cable has an E-marker chip built into each connector, or 20 V and 3 A for cables without such a chip. Presumably the new cables will require an updated E-marker chip, as the USB-IF only offers certification logos for 60 W and 240 W cables, suggesting that anything over 60 W will use the same E-marker chip.
Finally there's a logo for 240 W certified chargers, although, oddly enough, this logo is only mandatory on the packaging, so it won't help people to quickly identify a higher-end charger by simply looking for the logo. On the other hand, the USB-IF is also offering combined logos of the 40 Gbps and 240 W certified logos, but only for cables if the logo is to be printed on the device itself.
Hopefully this will help clear things up a bit for the average consumer, but often these logos aren't printed on the packaging and rarely used properly online. Having a quick look at Amazon, some 20 Gbps cables are shown with the USB 2.0 Hi-Speed certified logo, others seemingly claiming to support eGPUs and most, even from known brands, have no logos at all, yet claiming to be 20 Gbps and 100 W capable. If the USB-IF can't even make its members put the logo on their products, yet warning consumers to only buy certified products, what chance does the consumers have to know what they're buying?
Sources:
USB-IF (PDF), via The Verge
The new logos can be seen below and the first one is for devices that support 40 Gbps speeds over USB. Keep in mind that although USB4 is broadly based on Thunderbolt 3, the cables aren't going to be exactly the same, but that some USB4 implementations can also support Thunderbolt 4, just to complicate things a little bit extra. This logo can also be used with 40 Gbps capable ports on devices.
Finally there's a logo for 240 W certified chargers, although, oddly enough, this logo is only mandatory on the packaging, so it won't help people to quickly identify a higher-end charger by simply looking for the logo. On the other hand, the USB-IF is also offering combined logos of the 40 Gbps and 240 W certified logos, but only for cables if the logo is to be printed on the device itself.
Hopefully this will help clear things up a bit for the average consumer, but often these logos aren't printed on the packaging and rarely used properly online. Having a quick look at Amazon, some 20 Gbps cables are shown with the USB 2.0 Hi-Speed certified logo, others seemingly claiming to support eGPUs and most, even from known brands, have no logos at all, yet claiming to be 20 Gbps and 100 W capable. If the USB-IF can't even make its members put the logo on their products, yet warning consumers to only buy certified products, what chance does the consumers have to know what they're buying?
44 Comments on USB-IF Brings New USB Certification Logos to Help Consumers Buy the Right Cables and Chargers
Q. "Hey can I plug a PCI-E 4.0 GPU into a PCI-E 3.0 motherboard?"
A. "Depends. Is it a PCI-E v3.1 Generation 1 or PCI-E v3.1 Generation 2 socket. I mean you need to check PCI-E Superspeed 5 vs 10 vs 20 vs 40Gbps bandwidth. And make sure the 10x different available shaped (A 2.0) vs (B 2.0) vs (A 3.0) vs (B 3.0) vs (Mini A) vs (Mini B) vs (Micro A) vs (Micro B 2.0) vs (Micro B 3.0) vs (C) PCI-E cards & sockets all match up. Oh, and double check the 3 different 5v vs 20v vs 48v voltages too"...
"Christ, someone bring back Vesa Local Bus already. 'Put the biggest card in the biggest socket'. I got that."
Yes, the technology isn't half bad, but it's too hard for consumers to figure out what is what and when the USB-IF doesn't control its members and make sure products are clearly labelled, it gets even harder. I don't have a single USB cable with any USB-IF logo beyond the original text free USB logo.
The logos are too busy.
USB 4 should be USB 4, there should be a baseline for power and bandwidth. If there are grades above, they should be limited and meaningful. You don't have much space on a USB plug though for all those curved lines and rubbish.
"USB 4"
==> USB 4 100W 40Gbps (baseline)
"USB 4
240" (two lines, to fit on the USB plug)
==> USB 4 240W 40Gbps
USB sockets are a different thing, there's even less space for a tiny embossed symbol. We know that Type C is USB or DisplayPort or Thunderbolt, the last two have their own logos, so USB just needs VERSION (bandwidth) and Power (supply or input). Power could be a series of power-zap-symbols, like the chilli rating on an indian takeaway menu (except they look like thunderbolt symbols). Example of three ports on a system:
So there are three things, USB generation, USB power, USB bandwidth
Oh, and 'Thunderbolt support' as it now appears that USB 4 isn't actually 100% Thunderbolt? What?
Also, 100 watts can't realistically be the baseline. A baseline would be something that you can expect to get from most USB C sockets, whether on chargers, motherboards, PC cases, notebooks, monitors or anywhere else.
If Apple and Intel is that much innovative, then they need to create new connector for their parasite Thunderbolt instead of taking USB Type-C as their host to suck on and make it useless for people who really using it.
made trade negotiations and agreed on reasonable terms for both sidesnegotiated what can be delivered and what the device needs.But remember! It's the current that kills, not voltage!
Also, what is your issue with thunderbolt? It works just fine on my box, it’s an externalization of the pcie bus, and is very versatile… rather than take up room inside a case, I can externally install some of my pcie devices (such as an Aquantia 10gbps lan adapter and nvme storage). And with a thunderbolt 4 hub, I can add 3 additional thunderbolt4 ports. This is extremely flexible and versatile. And when USB4 finally comes, it will bring thunderbolt-like functionality to the masses. This is a good thing.