The USB 3.1 update improved the encoding scheme to reduce overhead which lead to a better data transfer rate, up to 10Gbps over as single lane, a transfer mode called “SuperSpeed+”. When USB 3.0 was first released, its main feature was a fast transfer mode called “SuperSpeed USB” which was able to reach transfer speeds of up to 5Gbps, 10 times faster than what the previous USB 2.0 spec was capable of.įor several years there would exist only one version of USB3, USB 3.0.Ģ013 - 2016 : USB 3.1 SuperSpeed+ and USB Type-CĪ few years after the introduction of USB 3.0 the USB Implementers Forum announced the first update to the specification, USB 3.1.

In this article we will provide a timeline of USB3’s development history, which will hopefully help explain how USB 3.0 evolved to USB 3.1 and then to USB 3.2. This continual rebranding has led to plenty of confusion over the USB3 naming convention. These improvements were rolled out across two updates, with each update leading to a rebrand. Unlike USB 2.0, which retained the same version and data transfer rate throughout its lifecycle, improvements made over the past decade to USB3 has led to faster transfer rates. Originally debuting in the 2010’s as “USB 3.0 SuperSpeed USB”, the USB3 interface has proven highly successful and has become as ubiquitous as its 2.0 predecessor.

Usb 2 vs usb 3 current capacity