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What does the 6 mean? (lemmy.world)
submitted 3 years ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 15 points 3 years ago (1 child)

WiFi has literally gone the opposite of USB.
It used to be obvious what USB speeds were, whereas WiFi was 802.11b or whatever.
Now we have WiFi 5 or WiFi 6. And we have USB-C PD 10gbps with AltMode

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  • [–] 7 points 3 years ago* (2 children)

    USB has gotten more complicated and does way more now in more contexts. It charges laptops now, it carries multiplexed displayport signals, it does its own handshake and performs hardware level initialization protocols.

    Meanwhile we've been wanting the same thing out of wifi since the start. Nothing's really changed, we just want it to go faster.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 years ago

    Fair point.
    USB doing everything requires significantly more description of what a port can actually do.
    I just wish the USB foundation didn't go with something that makes it difficult to find devices supporting specific features, and played directly into the marketing "upselling/shrinkflation" thing.
    The ubs3.1, usb3.2, gen1, gen2, 10gbps etc. It's a LOT, and everything is very similar.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago (1 child)

    You’re thinking of USB-C, not the USB standard. USB PD, Alternative Mode and Thunderbolt aren’t part of the USB spec.

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