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> But isn't fiber optic cable less tolerant of the kind of abuse that a short USB cable would see? A USB 3, or TB cable will be dead long before a toughened si
by baybal2 5y ago
> But isn't fiber optic cable less tolerant of the kind of abuse that a short USB cable would see?
A USB 3, or TB cable will be dead long before a toughened single mode cable from an equivalent amount of abuse.
I had many TB cables which degraded, or died completely simply from gently rolling, and unrolling them a few times.
I had a single mode cable in the office being driver over by heavy carts, and stepped on for years without it giving in.
Multimode cables though are way more prone to signal distortion from mechanical stress because of their their thicker cores.
- merb 5y agobtw. corning builds optical thunderbolt cables.
- somerandomqaguy 5y agoReally? Color me surprised. Just reading a bit more into it now, I always thought that it fiber optic was made of glass which was why optical cable was always more expensive and more delicate. Never heard of polymer based optical cables until now, and combined with a more robust sheathing... Would the total cost of cable then be somewhere in the same scale between an active circuit cable like USB 3.1 onwards vs a optical one with the laser transceivers and the like, assuming data signalling protocols?
- baybal2 5y agoThe optical cable itself is made of glass in a plastic sheath. It's very cheap because there are millions of kilometres of it used around the globe. And yes, the tiny few micron glass core is actually more tough than thicker copper cables. It's only sensitive to extreme, like 180° bends, and a thicker insulation will prevent permanent damage. The cheapest single mode SFP transmitters cost like 5-10 dollars wholesale. If they were manufactured in volumes comparable to USB chips, they would've probably cost close to one dollar.