Decem­ber 08, 2014 08:00 AM Eas­tern Stan­dard Time

GENEVA & BEAVERTON, Ore.–(BUSINESS WIRE) — The IEC (Inter­na­tio­nal Elec­tro­tech­ni­cal Com­mis­si­on) and the USB Imple­ment­ers Forum (USB-IF) today announ­ced that they have expan­ded inter­na­tio­nal stan­dards coope­ra­ti­on to include the latest USB-IF spe­ci­fi­ca­ti­ons for high-speed data deli­very and enhan­ced usa­ges for device char­ging. In par­ti­cu­lar, the USB-IF has sub­mit­ted to the IEC the USB Power Deli­very (Rev. 2.0, v1.0), USB 3.1 (Super­Speed USB 10 Gbps), and USB Type‑C Cable and Con­nec­tor specifications.

USB Power Deli­very was deve­lo­ped with a visi­on of deli­ve­ring uni­ver­sal char­ging to extend ease of use for con­su­mers and redu­ce elec­tro­nic was­te by offe­ring an alter­na­ti­ve to pro­prie­ta­ry, plat­form spe­ci­fic char­gers. The USB Power Deli­very spe­ci­fi­ca­ti­on defi­nes fea­tures that sup­port the glo­bal adop­ti­on of inter­ope­ra­ble exter­nal power sup­pli­es, including:

• Increased power levels from exis­ting USB spe­ci­fi­ca­ti­ons up to 100W
• Bi-direc­tion­al power capa­bi­li­ties to enable eit­her a host or device to be eit­her the pro­vi­der of power or the con­su­mer of power
• Opti­mi­zed power manage­ment across mul­ti­ple peri­pherals to allow each device to take only the power it requires
• Intel­li­gent and fle­xi­ble sys­tem level manage­ment of power
• USB Power Deli­very and USB per­for­mance capa­bi­li­ties can be deli­ver­ed over a single-cable

The new USB Type‑C spe­ci­fi­ca­ti­on, built on exis­ting USB 3.1 and USB 2.0 tech­no­lo­gies, was deve­lo­ped to faci­li­ta­te thin­ner and slee­ker pro­duct designs, enhan­ce usa­bi­li­ty and pro­vi­de a growth path for per­for­mance enhance­ments for future ver­si­ons of USB.

Key cha­rac­te­ristics of the USB Type‑C con­nec­tor and cable solu­ti­on include:

• An enti­re­ly new design tail­o­red to work well with emer­ging pro­duct designs
• New smal­ler size – simi­lar in size to the exis­ting USB 2.0 Micro‑B
• Usa­bi­li­ty enhance­ments – users will no lon­ger need to be con­cer­ned with plug orientation/cable direc­tion, making it easier to plug in
• The USB Type‑C con­nec­tor and cable will sup­port sca­lable power charging
• Sca­la­bi­li­ty – the con­nec­tor design will sca­le for future USB bus performance

USB 3.1 deli­vers speeds up to 10 Gbps, pro­vi­ding sup­port for audio/video that can dri­ve Ultra-HD (4K) dis­plays. USB hosts, hubs and devices can be built to sup­port a ran­ge of USB Power Deli­very and per­for­mance capa­bi­li­ties to meet the needs of OEMs. Along with the new USB Type‑C cable and con­nec­tor, USB 3.1 and USB Power Deli­very will bring enhan­ced appli­ca­ti­ons for a tru­ly sin­gle-cable solu­ti­on for data and power deli­very, buil­ding on the exis­ting glo­bal eco­sys­tem of USB / IEC 62680 series of Inter­na­tio­nal Stan­dards com­pli­ant devices. Devices sup­port­ing the­se new spe­ci­fi­ca­ti­ons are expec­ted to come to mar­ket in 2015.

The­se new stan­dards are also expec­ted to advan­ce glo­bal action on redu­cing e‑waste and impro­ving re-usa­bi­li­ty of power sup­pli­es with a ran­ge of elec­tro­nic devices. IEC’s approach for ongo­ing stan­dar­diza­ti­on work in this space is dri­ven by the ulti­ma­te goals of incre­asing exter­nal power sup­p­ly re-usa­bi­li­ty, sup­port­ing con­su­mer con­ve­ni­ence, main­tai­ning pro­duct relia­bi­li­ty and safe­ty, and pro­vi­ding for future tech­no­lo­gy inno­va­tions. In addi­ti­on, wide­spread adop­ti­on of the resul­ting Inter­na­tio­nal Stan­dards will help to redu­ce the encroach­ment of poor­ly desi­gned or manu­fac­tu­red after­mar­ket sub­sti­tu­tes which may affect the ope­ra­ti­on of elec­tro­nic devices in com­pli­ance with regu­la­to­ry requirements.

The three USB-IF spe­ci­fi­ca­ti­ons have been sub­mit­ted to the IEC TC (Tech­ni­cal Com­mit­tee) 100: Audio, video and mul­ti­me­dia sys­tems and equip­ment, to be con­side­red for inclu­si­on in the new­ly appro­ved IEC Inter­na­tio­nal Stan­dard IEC 62680 series, Uni­ver­sal Seri­al Bus inter­faces for data and power in sup­port of the sta­ted goal.

“IEC has a long­stan­ding rela­ti­onship with the USB-IF and belie­ves in the bene­fit of alig­ning with USB spe­ci­fi­ca­ti­ons becau­se of the strong world­wi­de and cross-indus­try sup­port behind the tech­no­lo­gy,” says Frans Vrees­wi­jk, Gene­ral Secre­ta­ry and CEO of the IEC.

“IEC reco­gni­zes the importance of eva­lua­ting the new USB Power Deli­very, USB 3.1 and USB Type‑C spe­ci­fi­ca­ti­ons for inclu­si­on in the IEC Inter­na­tio­nal Stan­dard as they are cle­ar­ly the right spe­ci­fi­ca­ti­ons to sup­port the next gene­ra­ti­on of ICT and con­su­mer pro­ducts,” explains Mr. Shui­chi Mat­su­mura, Mana­ger of IEC TC 100 TA (Tech­ni­cal Area) 14 and Seni­or Stan­dards Expert of the Intellec­tu­al Pro­per­ty and Stan­dards Stra­tegy Divi­si­on at Fuji­tsu Limited.

“The USB-IF fos­ters high-qua­li­ty, con­su­mer-fri­end­ly pro­ducts and inno­va­ti­ve USB tech­no­lo­gy,” says Jeff Raven­craft, USB-IF Pre­si­dent and COO. “Adop­ti­on of USB Power Deli­very, USB 3.1, and USB Type‑C is gro­wing fast and we are working clo­se­ly with IEC to pro­mo­te the bene­fits of the­se USB spe­ci­fi­ca­ti­ons to enable the goal of a com­mon exter­nal power sup­p­ly for elec­tro­nic devices.”

Resour­ces

• To learn more about IEC, visit http://www.iec.ch/.
• To learn more about USB-IF and USB spe­ci­fi­ca­ti­ons, visit www.usb.org.

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. USB-IF faci­li­ta­tes the deve­lo­p­ment of high-qua­li­ty, com­pa­ti­ble USB devices through its logo and com­pli­ance pro­gram reco­gni­zed around the glo­be 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.

About the IEC

The IEC (Inter­na­tio­nal Elec­tro­tech­ni­cal Com­mis­si­on) brings tog­e­ther 166 count­ries, repre­sen­ting 98% of the world popu­la­ti­on and 96% of world ener­gy gene­ra­ti­on, and clo­se to 15 000 experts who coope­ra­te on the glo­bal, neu­tral and inde­pen­dent IEC plat­form to ensu­re that pro­ducts work ever­y­whe­re safe­ly with each other. The IEC is the world’s lea­ding orga­niza­ti­on that pre­pa­res and publishes glo­bal­ly rele­vant Inter­na­tio­nal Stan­dards for the who­le ener­gy chain, inclu­ding all elec­tri­cal, elec­tro­nic and rela­ted tech­no­lo­gies, devices and sys­tems. The IEC also sup­ports all forms of con­for­mi­ty assess­ment and admi­nis­ters four Con­for­mi­ty Assess­ment Sys­tems that cer­ti­fy that com­pon­ents, equip­ment and sys­tems used in homes, offices, health­ca­re faci­li­ties, public spaces, trans­por­ta­ti­on, manu­fac­tu­ring, explo­si­ve envi­ron­ments and ener­gy gene­ra­ti­on con­form to them.

IEC work covers a vast ran­ge of tech­no­lo­gies: power gene­ra­ti­on (inclu­ding all rene­wa­ble ener­gy sources), trans­mis­si­on, dis­tri­bu­ti­on, Smart Grid & Smart Cities, bat­te­ries, home appli­ances, office and medi­cal equip­ment, all public and pri­va­te trans­por­ta­ti­on, semi­con­duc­tors, fib­re optics, nano­tech­no­lo­gy, mul­ti­me­dia, infor­ma­ti­on tech­no­lo­gy, and more. It also addres­ses safe­ty, EMC, per­for­mance and the envi­ron­ment. www.iec.ch