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> Making USB reversible to begin with would have necessitated twice as many wires and twice as many circuits Is this still true with USB-C?
by theogravity 3y ago
> Making USB reversible to begin with would have necessitated twice as many wires and twice as many circuits
Is this still true with USB-C?
- eep_social 3y agoFrom other comments it sounds like no. Instead, every port must detect the orientation and switch to using the correct lines in software. IIUC, each cable also needs a small IC to assist with this.
- Findecanor 3y agoReversibility for USB 2.0 data signals is mechanical: There are data pins on both sides and only one set of pins get connected. The socket side connects both sets. There is only one more wire in a USB-C 2.0 cable: it is used to signal orientation and if an end is a power source, sink or a headphone adaptor. USB-3 signals are more complicated though. There can be up to two bidirectional high-speed channels. The aforementioned sensing pin is used to figure out if those channels need to be swapped or not.