USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 State of the Ecosystem Review: Where Does 20Gbps USB Stand in 2020?
by Ganesh T S on October 5, 2020 10:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Storage
- SSDs
- Western Digital
- SanDisk
- ASMedia
- USB 3.2 Gen 2x2
Synthetic Benchmarks - ATTO and CrystalDiskMark
Western Digital claims claims read and write speeds of up to 2000 MBps for both the P50 and the Extreme PRO Portable SSD v2, and these are backed up by the ATTO benchmarks provided below. Unfortunately, these access traces are not very common in real-life scenarios.
| Drive Performance Benchmarks - ATTO |
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On the Haswell testbed, the Extreme PRO v2 hits 1.94 GBps writes, while the P50 manages 1.92 GBps. When connected using the eGFX enclosure to the Thunderbolt 3 port of the Hades Canyon NUC, the writes suffer a significant drop to the 1.4 - 1.5 GBps range, while the drop in the reads is not as drastic - ending up around 1.8 GBps for both of the drives.
CrystalDiskMark, despite being a canned benchmark, provides a better estimate of the performance range with a selected set of numbers. As evident from the screenshot below, the performance can dip to as low as 33 MBps for low-queue depth 4K random reads.
| Drive Performance Benchmarks - CrystalDiskMark |
 |
The sequential reads and writes are more useful from a direct-attached storage viewpoint. Here, we see around 2080 MBps for the Extreme PRO v2, and 2045 MBps for the WD_BLACK P50 as the best-case performance using the Haswell testbed.
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CaptainChaos - Monday, October 5, 2020 - link
Seems to me this whole fiasco is just an inevitable merge of USB (dumb/cheap interface) to Thunderbolt (smart-ish/expensive interface) to produce a middle-of-the-road option. Just how far can we go with the only choice of cheap & dumb vs smart & expensive? When the dust settles in a couple years we'll all be more-or-less happy and the next, greatest thing will be all over the tech news!!hubick - Tuesday, October 6, 2020 - link
Thunderbolt is essentially proprietary to Intel, and without Intel supporting USB 3.2 2x2, that makes 2x2 essentially proprietary to AMD. Did anyone ever release a JHL7440 based Thunderbolt 3 SSD that's actually compatible with regular USB-C ports? Cuz at least a USB 3.2 2x2 drive will *work* when plugged in to an Intel (Thunderbolt 3/USB4) system port, whereas most Thunderbolt drives won't even connect to an AMD (USB 3.2 2x2) system port.hubick - Sunday, November 29, 2020 - link
The LaCie "Rugged SSD Pro" (STHZ1000800 & STHZ2000800) appear to be the first JHL7440 based Thunderbolt SSD with USB fallback support.R3MF - Tuesday, October 6, 2020 - link
Have we had any indication of launch dates for USB4 controller chips?And any indication of the lag between launch and products utilising them arriving on shelves?
repoman27 - Tuesday, October 6, 2020 - link
Intel has already “launched” Tiger Lake CPUs with integrated Thunderbolt 4 / USB4 as well as the Goshen Ridge 4-port hub/device and a couple retimer chips. Additionally, they announced the Maple Ridge host controllers which will be available “later this year”. I’d reckon we’ll also see Apple Silicon Macs with Thunderbolt 4 / USB4 by the end of the year.R3MF - Tuesday, October 6, 2020 - link
Hmmm, really thinking about the thired party controller chips that are likely to be integrated into motherboards and drives on non-Tigerlake platforms.Much as the Asmedia chip is used today to add 2x2 (after being announced on AT about 18 months ago).
repoman27 - Tuesday, October 6, 2020 - link
That’d be the aforementioned Maple Ridge chips.I’d have to imagine ASMedia and AMD have something in the works, but to my knowledge they haven’t said anything publicly. Which means Intel and Apple are probably going to have a significant head start with Thunderbolt 4, and Intel will be the only source for discrete USB4 silicon for a while.
Tomatotech - Tuesday, October 6, 2020 - link
Dancing_coffin_pallbearers.gif🕺🏻🕺🏻 ⚰️ 🕺🏻 🕺🏻
Apologies for the emoji, but I don’t see how this USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 standard will ever take off given the travails and issues described in the article. Best to kill it and bury it somewhere deep.
PeachNCream - Tuesday, October 6, 2020 - link
"USB has emerged as the mainstream interface of choice for data transfer from computing platforms to external storage devices."The opening line made me laugh a little since USB has been the dominant PC interface for a solid 15 years now.
Mitch89 - Tuesday, October 6, 2020 - link
Honestly, what on earth was the thinking behind the ridiculous naming (and renaming) of the USB versions?It used to be simple and clear, but now, between the crazy naming and mess that is USB-C (is it USB or Thunderbolt? Is the cable USB 2, 3, 3.1 Gen 2? Does it support 100W power?), how is anyone supposed to make sense on it.