USB Type-C (new technology preview) 
Ever heard that one about a USB connector (as on your USB stick or mobile charger cable) having 3 ways of orientation? These are: up position, down position and superposition. According to this ‘theory’ the USB connector always stays in superposition, unless observed, when it instantaneously changes to either up, or down position (just like the famous Schrödinger’s cat). Well, it certainly feels that way most of the time. The common sense would suggest that after the USB connector does not fit one way, we just turn it around 180’ and this time it must fit, right? So why we find ourselves flipping the darned thing three or four times over without any success, then staring at it in disbelief, only for it to suddenly slide into the USB socket effortlessly?
Fortunately, this bewildering phenomenon will soon be a thing of the past.
USB 3.0 Promoter Group (a loose consortium of companies behind the USB 3.0 standard consisting of Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Microsoft, NEC, ST-Ericsson and Texas Instruments) recently announced a new USB 3.0 specification called Type-C.
The key characteristics of USB Type-C are:
» Entirely new design (with no backward mechanical compatibility)
» Smaller size (similar to the existing USB 2.0 Micro-B standard)
» Reversible plug orientation (the connector will fit both ways) *
» Bi-directional cables (an identical connector on both sides of the cable) *
» Scalable power charging (higher electric current handling capabilities)
» Scalability (the connector design can accommodate future USB specifications)
* These two features, which USB 3.0 Promoter Group calls ‘usability enhancements’, are particularly useful as the users will no longer need to be concerned with either which way they will insert the plug into socket, or which side of the cable goes into a device and which into a computer.
The plugs / sockets / cables of the new Type-C standard won’t be backward physically compatible with any present USB connectors, but the USB 3.0 Promoter Group promises coming up with a range of passive adapters to allow users to continue using their existing products featuring the old USB connectors.
The first products using the new USB Type-C connectors should start to appear on the market by the end of 2015 or beginning of 2016.
17/02/2014