Next gene­ra­ti­on USB Type‑C con­nec­tor enables thin­ner and slee­ker pro­duct designs

Bea­ver­ton, OR – August 12, 2014 – The USB 3.0 Pro­mo­ter Group today announ­ced the com­ple­ti­on of the USB Type‑C spe­ci­fi­ca­ti­on that defi­nes the next gene­ra­ti­on USB con­nec­tor. The USB Type‑C spe­ci­fi­ca­ti­on estab­lishes a new cable and con­nec­tor sche­me tail­o­red to fit mobi­le device pro­duct designs, yet robust enough for lap­tops and tablets. With this release, the spe­ci­fi­ca­ti­on has been trans­fer­red to the USB Imple­ment­ers Forum (USB-IF) for ongo­ing manage­ment and the estab­lish­ment of a com­pli­ance and cer­ti­fi­ca­ti­on pro­gram. The spe­ci­fi­ca­ti­on is available for down­load from the USB-IF web­site www.usb.org.

“Inte­rest in the USB Type‑C con­nec­tor has not only been glo­bal, but cross-indus­try as well,” said Brad Saun­ders, USB 3.0 Pro­mo­ter Group Chair­man. “Repre­sen­ta­ti­ves from the PC, mobi­le, auto­mo­ti­ve and IoT indus­tries have been kno­cking down our door anti­ci­pa­ting this new stan­dard. This spe­ci­fi­ca­ti­on is the cul­mi­na­ti­on of an exten­si­ve, coope­ra­ti­ve effort among indus­try lea­ders to stan­dar­di­ze the next gene­ra­ti­on USB con­nec­tor as a long-las­ting, robust solution.”

The USB Type‑C spe­ci­fi­ca­ti­on defi­nes the phy­si­cal USB Type‑C cable and con­nec­tor form fac­tor along with the func­tion­al requi­re­ments for detec­ting and mana­ging USB con­nec­tions over an exten­si­ble wiring archi­tec­tu­re. This new cable and con­nec­tor sup­ports USB per­for­mance at Super­Speed USB 10 Gbps (USB 3.1) and USB Power Deli­very up to 100W.

Key cha­rac­te­ristics of the USB Type‑C con­nec­tor include:

• Enti­re­ly new design

o    Tail­o­red for emer­ging pro­duct designs

o    Robust enough for lap­tops and tablets; slim enough for mobi­le phones

o    Simi­lar to size of USB 2.0 Micro‑B

• Usa­bi­li­ty enhancements

o    Rever­si­ble plug ori­en­ta­ti­on and cable direction

• Sup­ports sca­lable power charging
• Future sca­la­bi­li­ty

o    Desi­gned to sup­port future USB per­for­mance needs

• Mecha­ni­cal specs:

o    Recep­ta­cle ope­ning: ~8.4mm x ~2.6mm

o    Dura­bi­li­ty: 10,000 cycles

o    Impro­ved EMI- and RFI-miti­ga­ti­on features

o    Power deli­very capa­ci­ty: 3A for stan­dard cables and 5A for connectors

 

The new USB Type‑C plug and recep­ta­cle will not direct­ly mate with exis­ting USB plugs and recep­ta­cles (Type‑A, Type‑B, Micro‑B, etc.); howe­ver, the USB Type‑C spe­ci­fi­ca­ti­on defi­nes pas­si­ve new-to-exis­ting cables and adap­ters to allow con­su­mers to use the new con­nec­tor with their exis­ting products.

“USB has the luxu­ry of con­su­mer fami­lia­ri­ty and trust, and as we adapt the tech­no­lo­gy for the future we are com­mit­ted to ensu­ring the USB brand pro­mi­se con­ti­nues with this new USB Type‑C con­nec­tor and cable,” said Jeff Raven­craft, USB-IF Pre­si­dent and COO. “The USB-IF is working to estab­lish cer­ti­fi­ca­ti­on and com­pli­ance test­ing so that con­su­mers can have the same con­fi­dence in the next gene­ra­ti­on of cer­ti­fied USB technology.”

Deli­ve­ring a Sin­gle-Cable Solu­ti­on to the Industry 

The release of the USB Type‑C spe­ci­fi­ca­ti­on is the final pie­ce in deve­lo­ping a sin­gle-cable solu­ti­on. The com­bi­na­ti­on of Super­Speed USB 10 Gbps and USB Power Deli­very up to 100W with the slim, user-fri­end­ly USB Type‑C con­nec­tor pro­vi­des end­less pos­si­bi­li­ties. An ide­al exam­p­le use case is a docking solu­ti­on that fea­tures a sin­gle USB Type‑C cable con­nec­tion to dock and power your PC, and a hub within the dock that can con­nect mul­ti­ple screens strea­ming video with addi­tio­nal band­width available for many other func­tions. USB is an adap­ta­ble solu­ti­on that is fle­xi­ble enough to fit the varied needs of consumers.

Deve­lo­pers inte­res­ted in imple­men­ting the new USB Type‑C spe­ci­fi­ca­ti­on have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to learn tech­ni­cal details at upco­ming deve­lo­per con­fe­ren­ces curr­ent­ly being plan­ned. Details and con­fe­rence regis­tra­ti­on ins­truc­tions will be pos­ted on www.usb.org.

Sup­port­ing Quotes 

“In addi­ti­on to the trend of smal­ler and more mobi­le devices dri­ving redu­ced con­nec­tor sizes, cus­to­mers expect ease of use, excel­lent per­for­mance, and high relia­bi­li­ty in con­nec­ti­vi­ty solu­ti­ons,” said Tom Bono­la, HP Fel­low and Chief Tech­no­lo­gist for Busi­ness Per­so­nal Sys­tems, HP. “HP is com­mit­ted to the new USB Type‑C con­nec­tor as a way to deli­ver on all of the­se needs while sup­port­ing the full breadth of USB devices and pro­vi­ding a pathway for future inno­va­tions to crea­te and deli­ver supe­ri­or cus­to­mer value and experience.”

“This next gene­ra­ti­on of USB tech­no­lo­gy opens the door for the inven­ti­on of an enti­re­ly new, super thin class of devices that con­su­mers haven’t even seen yet,” said Alex Peleg, vice pre­si­dent, Plat­form Engi­nee­ring Group, Intel Cor­po­ra­ti­on. “The USB Type‑C con­nec­tor, com­bi­ned with high-per­for­mance data and power, is the ide­al sin­gle-cable solu­ti­on for all devices now and into the future.”

“Micro­soft sees this new USB Type‑C inter­face beco­ming the next gene­ra­ti­on indus­try stan­dard for high speed wired local con­nec­ti­vi­ty,” said Ilan Spil­lin­ger, cor­po­ra­te vice pre­si­dent for tech­no­lo­gy and sili­con in Microsoft’s Devices Group. “It will offer more intui­ti­ve con­su­mer expe­ri­ence by means of rever­si­ble plug ori­en­ta­ti­on and cable direc­tion designs. Fur­ther, this new USB Type‑C allows for radi­cal­ly hig­her data speeds and power car­ry­ing capa­bi­li­ties com­pared to the exis­ting methods. As one of the key indus­try play­ers behind the new design, we at Micro­soft belie­ve this is an important mile­stone in con­su­mer elec­tro­nics eco­sys­tem development.”

“Rene­sas con­gra­tu­la­tes the USB 3.0 Pro­mo­ter Group and USB-IF for the com­ple­ti­on of the new USB Type‑C spe­ci­fi­ca­ti­on,” said Ichi­ro Tomio­ka, vice pre­si­dent, Chief of OA & ICT Busi­ness Divi­si­on, Rene­sas Elec­tro­nics Cor­po­ra­ti­on. “As a USB Pro­mo­ter Group mem­ber for the last 20 years, Rene­sas belie­ves that this new spe­ci­fi­ca­ti­on can fur­ther expand the capa­bi­li­ties of the USB inter­face into many ver­ti­cal mar­kets, inclu­ding indus­tri­al and auto­mo­bi­le applications.”

“The USB Type‑C con­nec­tor is a major breakth­rough that com­bi­nes 10 Gbps high-speed com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on with char­ging capa­bi­li­ty sca­lable up to 100W, while con­so­li­da­ting num­e­rous cables into one robust, uni­que cable with rever­si­ble plug ori­en­ta­ti­on and cable direc­tion that signi­fi­cant­ly impro­ves the user expe­ri­ence,” said Joel Hul­oux, direc­tor, Stan­dar­diza­ti­on & Indus­try Alli­ances, STMi­croelec­tro­nics. “The USB Type‑C cable addres­ses future needs and, on the road or in the office, opens the door to exci­ting new appli­ca­ti­ons in the realm of DC power dis­tri­bu­ti­on into buil­dings, video trans­mis­si­on, acces­so­ry sup­port and hig­her com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on speed.”

“Num­e­rous pro­ducts will bene­fit from the increased per­for­mance and fle­xi­bi­li­ty that the USB Type‑C con­nec­tor pro­vi­des,” said Roland Sper­lich, TI Con­su­mer and Com­pu­ting Inter­face Pro­duct Line Mana­ger. “The wave of USB Type‑C pro­ducts to come will not only offer expan­ded capa­bi­li­ties, but also sim­pli­fy user experience.”

About the USB 3.0 Pro­mo­ter Group 

The USB 3.0 Pro­mo­ter Group, com­pri­sed of Hew­lett-Packard Com­pa­ny, Intel Cor­po­ra­ti­on, Micro­soft Cor­po­ra­ti­on, Rene­sas Elec­tro­nics, STMi­croelec­tro­nics and Texas Instru­ments, deve­lo­ped the USB 3.1 Spe­ci­fi­ca­ti­on that was released in July 2013. In addi­ti­on to main­tai­ning and enhan­cing this spe­ci­fi­ca­ti­on, the USB 3.0 Pro­mo­ter Group deve­lo­ps spe­ci­fi­ca­ti­on adden­dums to extend or adapt its spe­ci­fi­ca­ti­ons to sup­port more plat­form types or use cases whe­re adop­ting USB 3.1 tech­no­lo­gy will be bene­fi­ci­al in deli­ve­ring a more ubi­qui­tous, richer user experience.

 About the USB-IF 

The non-pro­fit USB Imple­ment­ers Forum, Inc. was for­med to pro­vi­de a sup­port orga­niza­ti­on and forum for the advance­ment and adop­ti­on of USB tech­no­lo­gy as defi­ned in the USB spe­ci­fi­ca­ti­ons. The USB-IF faci­li­ta­tes the deve­lo­p­ment of high-qua­li­ty com­pa­ti­ble USB devices through its logo and com­pli­ance pro­gram, and pro­mo­tes the bene­fits of USB and the qua­li­ty of pro­ducts that have pas­sed com­pli­ance test­ing. Fur­ther infor­ma­ti­on, inclu­ding pos­tings of the most recent pro­duct and tech­no­lo­gy announce­ments, is available by visi­ting the USB-IF web­site at www.usb.org.

 

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