Archive notice: This article was originally published on June 8, 2018. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
The preliminary specifications presented in July 2017 have now been around for a little while. At the time, a speed of up to 20 Gbit/s (2.5 GB/s) was announced. For comparison: with its predecessor USB 3.1 (Gen1), the real maximum was 3.2 Gbit/s, and with USB 3.1 (Gen2), the real maximum was 7.2 Gbit/s.
Time to test
But anyone can make big claims beforehand.
The manufacturer Synopsys has now published an initial speed test. A normal USB-C cable from Belkin with a USB 3.2 device (configured as mass storage) was used. The whole thing took place under Linux and with a USB 3.2 host under Windows 10 with standard USB drivers. The transfer took place over two of the four 10 Gbit/sGbit/s lanes—in multi-lane mode—so together a theoretical bandwidth of 20 Gbit/s was available.
Result
As with its predecessors, the theoretical bandwidth could not be achieved. However, a speed of 1.6 GB/s was reached, which could also be maintained continuously for 60 minutes.
The first hardware to support USB 3.2 was expected to reach the market only at the end of 2018 to the beginning of 2019. Whether it would establish itself as a standard, however, remained to be seen. After all, there were already some devices using Thunderbolt 3, for example, which was still faster at the time (40 Gbit/s).
