“Apple’s spec page for the new MacBook says that this port supports ‘USB 3.1 gen 1,’ [about] which there hasn’t been much discussion,” Andrew Cunningham reports for Ars Technica.
“We know that the USB Implementers Forum finalized the USB 3.1 spec back in 2013, and that it raises the theoretical bandwidth of the USB bus from USB 3.0’s 5Gbps to 10Gbps,” Cunningham reports. “That’s not the version of the USB 3.1 spec that Apple is offering.”
“The 10Gbps version of USB 3.1 that you probably think of when you think about USB 3.1 is called ‘USB 3.1 Gen 2,'” Cunningham reports. “USB 3.0 has retroactively been renamed ‘USB 3.1 Gen 1,’ and it retains a theoretical transfer rate of 5.0 Gbps. The USB-IF has confirmed to us that ‘USB 3.1 Type 1’ uses the same controllers as USB 3.0, so we can expect to see some early Broadwell-based Type C systems like the Retina MacBook come with ‘USB 3.1’ even though they’re using what we have heretofore known as ‘USB 3.0’ controllers.”
Much more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Yup, it’s a confusing mess.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “mpias3785” for the heads up.]