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USB inventor explains why the connector was not designed to be reversible (www.pcgamer.com)

submitted 1 year ago by ooli@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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[–] echodot@feddit.uk 32 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

USB-C has more connectors for data and power than A/B so it's not a surprise that it's more capable.

What's really changed is demand. No one really expected USB to be used to power everything, it was only ever really expected to be used on computers and maybe digital cameras, smartphones used to arrange matters for themselves. It was only when they two began to adopt USB aas well that calls for smaller ports and higher capacity cables started to arise.

[–] SomethingBurger@jlai.lu 10 points 1 year ago (4 children)

No one really expected USB to be used to power everything

Yeah, it's not like the U stands for Universal or something.

[–] nymwit@lemm.ee 16 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Yeah, Universal Spower Bus. Sounds right. I was reading the "power" part emphasized in the comment you replied to. Prior to mass adoption by phone mfrs, USB wasn't powering all that much. You'd usually have 5v wall wart and cable ending in a barrel connector. Hate those things.

[–] neonred@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

I chuckled more than I would like to admit about that spelled out USB name, dunno, it's funny

[–] pirat@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The Universal Spower Bus

sounds like an awesome transit vehicle!

Let's take a ride!

Edit: Spower is a contraction of Space and Power. Yes, you heard me right. It's running on spinfinite space power!

And there you have it,

The Universal Spower Bus:

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 6 points 1 year ago

I'm not really sure what that means. The original A/B specification did not allow for much variable voltage. It's only universal in name, not in nature. There was absolutely no way to deal with high voltage devices, the cables were not adaptive.

USB 4.0 specification allows for powering things like electrical drills. No way the original USB A/B specification can handle that.

[–] averyfalken@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 year ago

You are right to an extent but the context of its original universality is in the rest of the name. Universal serial bus. The idea was a universal port for dealing with data and connections not neccesarily power.

[–] PixxlMan@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

And yet it still can't retingulate droopglers. Pathetic.

[–] Socsa@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

We are way past it being just a power thing though. USB-C is effectively the standard wired general purpose data bus these days. It's slowly cannibalizing HDMI and DP as well (via thunderbolt), in addition to power cords.