Dell Precision 3240 Compact Service Manual page 15

The topics below cover some of the most commonly asked questions regarding USB 3.2 Gen 1.
USB 3.2 Gen 2 (SuperSpeed USB)
For years, the USB 2.0 has been firmly entrenched as the de facto interface standard in the PC world with about 6 billion
devices sold, and yet the need for more speed grows by ever faster computing hardware and ever greater bandwidth demands.
The USB 3.2 Gen 2 finally has the answer to the consumers' demands with a theoretically 10 times faster than its predecessor.
In a nutshell, USB 3.2 Gen 2 features are as follows:
● Higher transfer rates (up to 10Gbps)
● Increased maximum bus power and increased device current draw to better accommodate power-hungry devices
● New power management features
● Full-duplex data transfers and support for new transfer types
● Backward USB 2.0 compatibility
● New connectors and cable
The topics below cover some of the most commonly asked questions regarding USB 3.2 Gen 1.
Speed
Currently, there are 3 speed modes defined by the latest USB 3.2 Gen 1/USB 3.2 Gen 1 and USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 specification. They
are Super-Speed, Hi-Speed and Full-Speed. The new SuperSpeed mode has a transfer rate of 4.8 Gbps. While the specification
retains Hi-Speed, and Full-Speed USB mode, commonly known as USB 2.0 and 1.1 respectively, the slower modes still operate at
480 Mbps and 12 Mbps respectively and are kept to maintain backward compatibility.
USB 3.2 Gen 1 achieves the much higher performance by the technical changes below:
● An additional physical bus that is added in parallel with the existing USB 2.0 bus (refer to the picture below).
● USB 2.0 previously had four wires (power, ground, and a pair for differential data); USB 3.0/USB 3.1 Gen 1 adds four more
for two pairs of differential signals (receive and transmit) for a combined total of eight connections in the connectors and
cabling.
● USB 3.2 Gen 1 utilizes the bidirectional data interface, rather than USB 2.0's half-duplex arrangement. This gives a 10-fold
increase in theoretical bandwidth.
With today's ever increasing demands placed on data transfers with high-definition video content, terabyte storage devices,
high megapixel count digital cameras etc., USB 2.0 may not be fast enough. Furthermore, no USB 2.0 connection could ever
come close to the 480Mbps theoretical maximum throughput, making data transfer at around 320 Mbps (40 MB/s) — the
actual real-world maximum. Similarly, USB 3.0/USB 3.1 Gen 1 connections will never achieve 4.8Gbps. We will likely see a real-
world maximum rate of 400MB/s with overheads. At this speed, USB 3.0/USB 3.1 Gen 1 is a 10x improvement over USB 2.0.
Technology and components 15