So what you’re saying is that the primary purpose of the naming is to be as confusing or ridiculous as possible.

Well, at least the USB Implementers Forum stopped putting things like "Full Speed" or "High Speed" in the names. It's not much, but it's something. If they would now stop renaming older specifications every few years, that would be nice.

Pretty sure the USB naming committee is a Python skit that got away.

This video was extremely helpful in understanding why the naming is complex. Now I think about the USB number in 'USB Y.Z' as the "meta scheme" number. So reading "USB 3.0" I think "original scheme, so just the third major USB". If I read "USB 3.1" I think "Speed scheme. Gen 1 is 5Gbit, Gen 2 is 10Gbit". If I read "USB 3.2" I think "Lane scheme. So Gen 1x1 is 5Gbit, one lane. Gen 1x2 is 5Gbit, two lanes, so 10Gbit. Gen 2x1 is 10Gbit, one lane. Gen 2x2 is 10Gbit two lanes, so 20Gbit."

Amazed the USB governing body didn't rename themselves

Amazing amount of useful info packed into 13 minutes - thank you. Hopefully with the new logos we'll get more useful labels on devices and cables.

Engineers know the difference. Marketing and Sales do not.

The fact you got all that into a 13 minute video was pretty impressive. I think it could have stretched to 30 minutes or more. Thanks for putting this out there, it will certainly be helpful when I'm looking for cables for my devices.

Crazy! Names like 3.2 Gen 2x1, x2, etc. is way too detailed to be understood. Names should be simple (ie USB 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc.) so general consumers don't have to get caught in the weeds. If someone needs to know the specific details they can always Google it. As we progress this is only going to get worse.

Even after your explanation, I still wonder what the USB IF people drank when they made all of these catastrophy.

First USB explainer video that actually made sense to me.

I remember the days of Firewire (IEEE 1394a) and how I loved the ability to chain devices over USB's master/slave roles. I thought it would win out, but now it leaves me a drive sitting idly by as a historical landmark. Other issues in that day were trying to find even faster storage solutions and looking early at networked storage over Firewire 400 and 800 hard drives so that we could edit and move scratch disks for Final Cut Pro, after all gigabit Ethernet was the fastest thing I could see then to transfer video data at the time. So much has changed, but thinking through different protocols, encoding, and that overhead made for interesting hardware choices back then. Glad things are more settled now. Or are they?

So, if USB gen 2 is X1 and read speed 2 is R2 then the next generation of D1 will become .. R2D2 ?

I'm mostly baffled how slow USB-C adoption is so slow, companies slacking so much. Also lack of USB4 ports even on expensive boards and lack of devices still.

I think there's a bug in the bandwidth chart you used. usb 1.x was 1.5Mbit and 12Mbit for Fullspeed. so the chart should actualky show 0.012 Gbit and not 0.12

The explanation was surprisingly fun , thank you man

“The good thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from.” ― Andrew S. Tanenbaum

Can anyone imagine a world where USB never really took off? Would firewire have developed into what USB is today? Would external drives use eSATA? Would printers use turbocharged parallel ports? Would mice and keyboards still be using the 6-pin PS/2 style interface? Would phones still use barrel jacks to charge? We would be in a VERY different world if USB hadn't caught on.

Thanks. Very useful. ... The naming group needs what is refereed to as a "dope slap".

Best USB explainer on KZfaq.

It would have been nice if you had pictures of USBs as you were describing them so we know which one you're talking about and how they look.

meh . . . I think I'll wait for USB 6.66 PhD DDS AM/FM eXtreme!!!

Great - however on my Mini NUC Core i5 12th PC one of the USB's has a 'battery' symbol overlaid on the SS 10 - so yet more symbols to look out for?

Thanks for this!

YOur explanation of the various USB xx standards NEEDS to specify the MAXIMUM DISTANCE over which USB xx can RELIABLY transmit the data.

I can't fathom the shear fatness of the blunt these engineers smoked to rename the same thing over and over.

Gary, at 11:20, where did you get that shot from? I've looked everywhere!

I'm glad that there's a new naming system because USB 3.1 and USB 3.2 were nightmares

USB naming give me headaches

question? usb 3.2 vs usb c 3.2 gen 2 on my pc and i bought a external ssd with a usb c to usb b(into pc) it was also some one who told me to buy a usb c to usb c 20gbps cable instead of the cable that was in same box as my external ssd(I did this and just connected it to my pc) So the transfer speeds of 400mb/s went up to 687mb/s so it was definatly faster....This i could see without a doubt myself.. But my question is this because i game from my external ssd and loading times has been good will the loading times be even faster now after i got this usb c to c 3.2 gen 2 cable(or is it no differences when it comes to games loading times and only faster when i transfer big game files between my nvme to external ssd"this i saw at once,but loading times w games i dont kno??9 Also why did my external ssd come with a slower usb c to b cable and not the faster? kingston xs1000 2tb is the name if anybody knows this because its just sad to if they dont ship the faster cable and just the older n slower instead(Is this because there are not enough people using usb c ports on pc or what could be the reason to this??) Thanks n must say this was a great video(i have never been aware of all the different speeds(i knew about usb2.0 and usb3.0 and that was it)

Hi, Gary. So when Apple says the iPhone 15 Pro uses USB 3 with data transfer speeds of 10 gbs, which USB protocol is it actually using? And how is it different from the USB in the regular iPhone 15? Please explain! Thanks.

R the charging rate not different? On Apple or other laptop I don't remember

The annoying bit is that you can’t physically tell the difference between a $10 Amazon Basics cable for charging your phone and a $150 I bought this Thunderbolt 4 special at the Apple Store

I just had the biggest WTF in my life trying to understand the 3.x standard.

What a bloody mess. It seems variety is the spice of life that gives you the toilet runs and mouth blisters at once, all while not requiring the ingestion of any food. $0.02

All this basically the same data transfer rates but renamed & x1, x2's are confusing, why not call them USB Pro, USB Max & USB Ultra like smartphones & then add gen 1, gen 2 etc.... I often missed out on a newer generation of USB versions because retailers doesn't infirm customers trying to clear old stock.

3:30 onwards, superb. Simple.

Yeah... USB's naming convention is like throwing perfume on a pile of hot garbage in a hot and humid summer day to see if it "fixes" the whole thing. It's one of the most insanely idiotic naming conventions I've ever heard. The problem isn't only about understanding what it is, it's about identifying what devices have what - which manufacturers conveniently won't list or tell, btw - then testing a whole combination of ports and cables to see what works and what doesn't because of a standard that cannot work as a standard, and then after you went through all that multiple times over, you have to keep managing all those devices and cables that you don't know exactly what will work and what won't because of this entire mess. And then to further make things worse, now we're dealing with enough power to fry devices and potentially even cause fires. Between USB 1 and 2 you didn't really have much of a problem because even if stuff was poorly made, because it was low powered, things just wouldn't work and that was it. Now, if you have a poorly made USB-C cable or out of spec device, you could fry something up, as happened early on. You pick any random USB A to USB C cable laying around, you have no way of telling it it's a USB 2 power only cable, all the way up to the latest USB 4 spec with full support. It's just a total shitshow. Anyways, rant over, let me give a tip for people with this problem... go to Amazon, Aliexpress or other platforms and search for "USB cable tester", look for a bare circuit board device with multiple connectors. Some will have 6 different connector types, some will have 9 - between USB-C, USB A, micro USB, and then perhaps it could have USB B, micro B, mini B and whatnot. And then a bunch of leds in the middle of the board. You just plug cables from one side to another and the led indicators will tell you what the cable supports. It's a life saver.

Goodness! So confusing. Thank you for your clear and no nonsense explanation.

2:36 USB naming is so messed up even you accidently said "gigabyte"... ;)

5:23 Why couldnt they also make the 3DXpoint specs and protocols open source, since they're shutting down the Optane business anyway.

Beware of Thunderbolt 3 cables that DO NOT support Displayport. I bought Belking TB3 2M Active and discovered it doesnt support Displayport

Well done

do you recommend me buying a phone with usb 2.0?

Very clear and helpful. Thank you.

excellent explanation tq

Will my external hard disk work faster if use usb 3.1 instead of usb 2 ?

Thank you Gary that was very helpful to me.

I've never been more confused

Thank you for the explanation!

3 minutes in, my head hurts! 🤕

Clear as mud.

Question is, when are they going to change it again?

Very useful info, thx !

Instead of naming USB 3 using confusing terms, why not just name USB 3 based on their speed? For example... USB 3 5Gb/s USB 3 10Gb/s (single lane) USB 3 10Gb/s (dual lane) USB 3 20Gb/s This would be WAY more simple. (oh great, now I need to patent this) 😁

That's a OnePlus USB cable and they kept using USB2.0 for years.

very informative video

Au bout du compte quel est l'avantage REEL pour un utilisateur ""normal"" ?

Yes fine! I think! But the Chinese sellers of addon bits and bobs will call whatever they sell whatever they want again. Thus confusing confusion even more, so the seller confusion of Aliexpress terminology and naming flows to ebay and Amazon as the sellers look for new selling platforms. And no. Confusion of confusion does not mean it is all corrected. Two wrongs still do not make a right.

That USB governing body must have been completely on crack to come up with these USB revision codes. Thanks, Gary.

Informative. Thank you very much.

USB naming is so confusing... I have to double check what each of them means EVERYTIME!!

I SUPPOSE THE NEED IS FOR FASTER SPEEDS AND TO KEEP THE MONEY COMING IN. IT USED TO BE A SIMPLE PLUG-AND-PLAY DUE TO GOOD PROGRAMMING. NOT ANYMORE ITS JUST ONE RIDDLE AFTER ANOTHER. WE ARE GETTING PIS-T OFF

This clears my usb pendrive buying confusion 😂

As clear as mud!

Thank you for this good sir!!!

You lost me at 'let me explain' but good video as always

1 thing is true I've never seen in my life that 2008 upto speed, like ever!! That speed never reached by any file type transfer

👏👏👏Thanks!

Huh thought it was USB4 20Gbps in case of it being usb4 🤔

Can I put a usb 3.0 in a USB 3.1 Gen 2 port/plug ( which in on a new Mac air that ) or is there an adapter? Sorry I probably sound really dumb. (My external hard drive has a usb 3.0 ( think it’s just 3.0) & if I get a new MacBook Air, will have a usb 3.1 gen 2 . Hence the question (I’m sure there are ways to sort it all out , even if I needed to get someone else to organise it. And I am going to be buying a new external hard drive now as a backup. ).

Thanks professor!

*What a mess lol*

the usb 3.2 is really confusing.

OMG! Chaos!

Don't get confused… Just remember USB is USB…

Apple also helped develop various things for Thunderbolt like the minidisplay port it was using from the beginning on Macs. But it is primarily Intel that develops it and I think has full ownership of it (at least the later versions). Apple applied for the trademark but gave it to Intel. I dunno if Apple has lost some ownership since they started to make their own CPUs for Macs instead of using Intels.

So maybe I have multiple USB in the same physical male type-c 😂

Gj as usual ❤

Nice video

Go home, usb-if, you're drunk

Clear as MUD ;)

So basically 😅 usb 3.0 😅 is non-existent

Omg. Are they crazy?

Perpetuating "USB 4.0" or "USB 4" is harmful to consumers because not only does it go against the original material, but it is also worse for SEO and creates confusion. There's a reason it's USB4 , the marketing is clearer and avoids nonsensical questions like "what is USB 4.0 v2.0" ???"

In one ear, out the other...

What I can't figure out is... Do I need to throw away my so called fast / universal / High Speed 3.0 chargers or will they still work with the new devices with 3.2 ports. I don't really care if they charge slowly and may not keep up with power consumption. I would like to change out my charging stations over time rather than a big investment all at once.

i propose future dev of the old firewire and the 1st would be called DragonFireWire 1.0 which has a speed of 50 Gbit/s! u know nothing nerd snow!

👍👍

🎉

Just use usb4

USB needs to be replaced.