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I wish the industry would bite the bullet and come up with 'USB-hypothetical' based around a strictly enforced standard which used active optical cables with ad
by bleepblorp 6y ago
I wish the industry would bite the bullet and come up with 'USB-hypothetical' based around a strictly enforced standard which used active optical cables with additional conductors for power.
An awful lot of USB issues would go away by getting rid of the need to push an electrical protocol too close to physical limits, enforcing sane minimum standards so end users have a clear idea of what a given port can provide (none of the current mess where 'USB-C' represents a connector that could support any number of protocols), and making layer 1 a dumb pipe (no special wires needed to support optional feature X) so functionality could be entirely software-defined.
USB is just too complicated for its own good, and has too many optional features, to be friendly to end users.
- baybal2 6y agoUSB certification already exists, and consistently fails regardless of how hard, and arduous it is to pass, and the only option seem to make it actually work is to make it even more strict, which itself will be a turnoff to hardware, and more importantly, chipmakers. Thunderbolt chips already cost an arm, and a leg.
- willis936 6y agoUSB is a good example of why testing should be hard and should be wholly dependent on the problem and not at all on the feelings of the manufacturer. You don’t see 100G Ethernet links dropping out because of a crappy cable.
- xorfish 6y agoOptical cables are not robust enough for the use as everyday cable.
- baybal2 6y agoToday's singlemode is quite abuseproof. Saying this, while having one cable in the office which was ridden over by carts, stepped, and stumbled on for years. I can't imagine UTP5/6, or especially 7 surviving this. I'd say a purpose made, abuse proof optical cable is better than high frequency copper cabling.
- avian 6y agoHow abuse-proof are the optical connectors on those? Can you carry devices and cables in dusty bags all day and not worry about getting dirt in the optical path?
- baybal2 6y agoYes, I think connectors are now the weakest part of an optical cable. Singlemode's biggest weakness is alignment, optics, and a big change for a single dust particle to do a double digit decibel drop. Either terminations will have to be done with some abuse proofing ferrule with a built-in lens, or every optical cable have to be active, with a transmitter glued to it. The later in comparison to first, solves the issue in its entirety, and is not that much of a crazy proposition today. Even the most fancy laser chips like EAM, and MZI modulated ones, can be made for cents if the competition will made vendors to drop prices.
- NovemberWhiskey 6y ago>The later in comparison to first, solves the issue in its entirety, and is not that much of a crazy proposition today. Right - you can buy these right now: https://www.corning.com/optical-cables-by-corning/worldwide/en/products/thunderbolt-optical-cables.html https://www.corning.com/optical-cables-by-corning/worldwide/...
- hurrrrrrrr 6y agoAnd how much more do they cost in comparison with hooking a few copper wires to a simple copper plug manufactured in china?
- baybal2 6y ago$30-$40 wholesale in China, but... 1. Single mode fibre already costs less than high high frequency cabling. 2. A standard written from scratch can move all smart electronics, and even some passives from the transceiver into the device. 3. The moment a transceiver turns into a standardised single chip device, economies of scale turn enormous. 4. Optics can be simplified for direct attach devices. 5. Cheapest transceivers sets + cabling for single mode 10G ethernet already cost less than $10 wholesale.
- csunbird 6y agoObligatory xkcd: https://xkcd.com/927/ https://xkcd.com/927/