USB 3.0 Pro­mo­ter Group announ­ces deve­lo­p­ment of USB Type‑C Spe­ci­fi­ca­ti­on 

Bea­ver­ton, OR – Decem­ber 3, 2013 – The USB 3.0 Pro­mo­ter Group today announ­ced that the deve­lo­p­ment of the next gene­ra­ti­on of USB con­nec­tor has begun. The new USB Type‑C con­nec­tor, built initi­al­ly on exis­ting USB 3.1 and USB 2.0 tech­no­lo­gies, is being deve­lo­ped to help enable thin­ner and slee­ker pro­duct designs, enhan­ce usa­bi­li­ty and pro­vi­de a growth path for per­for­mance enhance­ments for future ver­si­ons of USB. This sup­ple­ment to the USB 3.1 spe­ci­fi­ca­ti­on is anti­ci­pa­ted to be com­ple­ted by the midd­le of next year.

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 Type‑C con­nec­tor and cable will sup­port sca­lable power charging
• Sca­la­bi­li­ty – the con­nec­tor design will sca­le for future USB bus performance

As 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.), the Type‑C spe­ci­fi­ca­ti­on will defi­ne pas­si­ve new-to-exis­ting cables and adap­ters to allow users to use their exis­ting products.

“While USB tech­no­lo­gy is well estab­lished as the favor­ed choice for con­nec­ting and powe­ring devices, we reco­gni­ze the need to deve­lop a new con­nec­tor to meet evol­ving design trends in terms of size and usa­bi­li­ty,” said Brad Saun­ders, USB 3.0 Pro­mo­ter Group Chair­man. “The new Type‑C con­nec­tor will fit well with the market’s direc­tion and affords an oppor­tu­ni­ty to lay a foun­da­ti­on for future ver­si­ons of USB.”

“Intel is exci­ted to see the deve­lo­p­ment of the new thin Type‑C con­nec­tor as it will enable an enti­re­ly new super thin class of devices from pho­nes to tablets, to 2‑in-1s, to lap­tops to desk­tops and a multi­tu­de of other more spe­ci­fic usa­ge devices,” said Alex Peleg, Vice Pre­si­dent, Plat­form Engi­nee­ring Group. “This new indus­try stan­dards-based thin con­nec­tor deli­ve­ring data, power and video is the only con­nec­tor one will need across all devices.”

“The new Type‑C con­nec­tor fur­thers USB’s lead in addres­sing cus­to­mer desi­re for more fle­xi­bi­li­ty and hig­her per­for­mance,” said Roland Sper­lich, TI Con­su­mer and Com­pu­ting Inter­face Pro­duct Line Mana­ger. “This allows USB to increase per­for­mance and con­ti­nue to deli­ver ease of use to seve­ral evol­ving pro­duct cate­go­ries for years to come.”

The USB Type‑C spe­ci­fi­ca­ti­on is tar­ge­ted for indus­try review during the first quar­ter of 2014 and a final spe­ci­fi­ca­ti­on is expec­ted to be published by the midd­le of 2014. Fur­ther infor­ma­ti­on regar­ding the spe­ci­fi­ca­ti­on and plans for pre-release indus­try reviews will be pro­vi­ded via the USB Imple­ment­ers Forum (USB-IF) web­site at http://www.usb.org/developers/USB-Futures.pdf.

About the USB 3.0 Pro­mo­ter Group

The USB 3.0 Pro­mo­ter Group, com­pri­sed of Hew­lett-Packard Com­pa­ny, Intel Cor­po­ra­ti­on, Micro­soft Cor­po­ra­ti­on, Rene­sas Elec­tro­nics and Texas Instru­ments, deve­lo­ped the USB 3.0 Spe­ci­fi­ca­ti­on that was released in Novem­ber 2008. 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 3.0 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. 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.