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What does microUSB not provide that they need?
by CWIZO 14y ago
What does microUSB not provide that they need?
- _djo_ 14y agomicroUSB has 4 ports, Lightning has 8 ports. Since only two of the microUSB ports are for data (the others are power and ground), that means Lightning has an additional 4 ports that can be dedicated to non-USB data I/O.
- pooriaazimi 14y agoLightening has 9 pins. The ninth is the outer metal strip.
- bryanlarsen 14y agoMicroUSB has 5pins, not 4. The additional pin is for USB host Mode switching. No more type a / type b nonsense. USB/mhl can do audio and video quite nicely, so there's absolutely no need for additional data pins. Multiplexing works quite nicely. The additional pins and aren't analog audio, apple said it was entirely digital. I suspect the additional pins are there solely to support the reversibility of the connector.
- _djo_ 14y agoThanks, sorry, my mistake. I was working on memory, been some time since I read up on this. I appreciate the explanation. It's certainly possible that the additional pins are for reversibility only, that's something I hadn't considered. I guess we'll have to wait until the first tear-downs and pin-out diagrams surface.
- _djo_ 14y agoLooking at the connector again it's pretty clear that there are 8 pins on either side, plus the 9th pin on the side. So they're definitely not there for reversibility. So whatever the purpose of the additional ports, the Lightning connector does have more ports than microUSB.
- CWIZO 14y agoBut that doesn't explain why they need that. I'm more interested inthat.
- gte910h 14y ago30pin dock connectors are designed to allow easy connections to the device by 3rd party devices (and to allow the collection of licensing fees from them, which are unlikely in the event of using a standard connector).