StarTech.com 1-Port USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 PCIe Card - USB-C SuperSpeed 20Gbps PCI Express 3.0 x4 Host Controller Card - USB Type-C PCIe Add-On Adapter Card - Expansion Card - Windows & Linux (PEXUSB321C)

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USB 3.0 Motherboards". Gigabyte.com. Indianapolis: Gigabyte Technology. Archived from the original on 1 June 2010 . Retrieved 14 October 2019. . As a result, the 1TB capacity T9 costs 86% more than the 1TB T7, and the larger drives are more than 50% more.

USB‐IF" (PDF). USB.org. USB Implementers Forum. 17 November 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on 31 March 2010 . Retrieved 22 June 2010. The different USB 3.x version numbers exist purely because the number has been iterated with each speed advancement. In 2008, the USB 3.0 standard launched, bringing USB up to 5 Gbps, a huge leap from the 480 Mbps speed of USB 2.0, and for many years that was as fast as USB could go. In fact, even today, the vast majority of USB ports and products don't go beyond 5 Gbps nor do you need them to. Many peripherals don't even need to go beyond USB 2.0. Unless one moves to the high-end of the capacity line with the 2TB models, the cost-per-GB metric (above 20¢ per GB) is simply not competitive against the SuperSpeed USB 10Gbps external SSDs that have taken over the market in the last couple of years. At the 2TB capacity point, excellent external SSDs of this type are available at less than 15¢ per GB, while the best that the above three families can offer is 0.175¢ per GB. As adoption increases, the price should go down, but right now, there is no denying that there is a premium. Is the premium worth it? We review selected components from the above list in an attempt to find the answer. The Test Devices

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Sadly, the Gen 2x2 standard never really became established, and it is likely to become a footnote to the history of USB once USB 4.0 becomes the new norm. Also, we were sent a statement from Kingston as to why the technology is NOT compatible with Thunderbolt 4 or Thunderbolt 3:

USB3.2 Gen2×2 – new, marketed as SuperSpeed USB 20Gbps, 20 Gbit/s signaling rate over 2 lanes using 128b/132b encoding (nominal data rate: 2424 MB/s). In mid-2017, USB-IF announced USB 3.2 to bring 20 Gbps bandwidth support to the Type-C ecosystem. Type-C supports two sets of high-speed differential pairs. Only one set is used for traditional 10 Gbps operation (in USB 3.2 Gen 2), with the other set used for supporting alternate modes such as DisplayPort. USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 allows this set also to be used for data transmission (when the alternate modes are not needed). This doubled the available data bandwidth to 20 Gbps. A year down the road, ASMedia demonstrated a PHY for the 2x2 operation. At MWC 2019, USB-IF made public the branding strategy for the the different USB 3.2 flavors - SuperSpeed USB for USB 3.2 Gen 1 ( 5Gbps ), SuperSpeed USB 10Gbps for USB 3.2 Gen 2, and SuperSpeed USB 20Gbps for USB 3.2 Gen 2x2. This was followed by the announcement and demonstration of the ASMedia ASM3242 Gen 2x2 controller for hosts and the ASMedia ASM2364 Gen 2x2 to PCIe (NVMe) controller for devices at Computex 2019. At the same show, Phison also announced a single-chip USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 / NAND flash controller, the PS2251-17.

Miscellaneous Aspects and Concluding Remarks

USB-IF announces second certified USB 3.0 host controller" (Press release). USB Implementers Forum, Inc. 16 November 2010 . Retrieved 30 August 2018. USB 3.1 Legacy Connectors and Cable Assemblies Compliance Document Rev 1.1". USB.org. USB Implementers Forum . Retrieved 27 February 2019. The USB 4 switchover will take time – and a lot of it, no doubt – but it will eventually start to gain serious momentum. However, in this prolonged transitional phase, further confusion is likely to come into play in terms of the capabilities of any particular given USB Type-C connector (although there’s nothing new there), which might be USB 4, USB 4 without Thunderbolt 3 compatibility, or a previous-gen technology. USB3.0 port provided by an ExpressCard-to-USB3.0 adapter may be connected to a separately-powered USB3.0 hub, with external devices connected to that USB3.0 hub.

Obviously, you want USB3+ for anything data intensive. Apart from the speed, it has the added advantage that it's full duplex, so data can flow simultaneously in both directions, like on Ethernet networks or PCIe. SuperSpeed USB 10 Gbps– Ready for Development" (PDF) (Press release). Hillsboro, Oregon. 31 July 2013. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 January 2016. As we mentioned at the outset, USB 4 is based on the Thunderbolt protocol which Intel made freely available to the USB Promoter Group (which it’s a member of, along with many other tech giants), allowing USB 4 to offer Thunderbolt 3 equivalent speeds of 40Gbps; twice that of the preceding USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 standard.We also need to mention that should it not withstand being dropped, Samsung warranty doesn’t cover falls from any height. But it does offer a five-year warranty for other unfortunate things that might befall any drive. We’ll talk about performance shortly, but how well it performs is entirely dependent on the specification of the USB the drive is connected. USB 3.1 Gen 2 is capable of 10 Gbps transfer speeds---that's called SuperSpeed+. Technically, it accomplishes this by using 128b/132b encoding in a full-duplex communications mode. Full-duplex communication is exciting because that means information can be transferred and received at the same time. That's why it's faster. USB3.1 Gen2 – new, marketed as SuperSpeed+ or SS+, 10Gbit/s signaling rate over 1 lane using 128b/132b encoding (nominal data rate: 1212 MB/s).

So this is how pricing issues on the manufacturer’s side are going to be something of a drag on that grand vision of an all-USB 4 computing world, where all connectivity is uniform.This cost issue – which will doubtless be more pronounced in the early stages of USB 4 development – means that older USB ports will likely hang around for some time yet (as we’ve already seen since the introduction of USB Type-C). Remember that the fancy new (more expensive) USB 4 connectors won’t be needed for all use cases, such as hooking up a simple keyboard – which doesn’t need great chunks of bandwidth – so older-gen USB ports will still be included, probably in the majority, on desktop PCs and laptops; at least in the nearer future.