Industry Expert Blogs
USB4 Interoperability with Thunderbolt™ 3 (TBT3) SystemsFunctional Verification Blog - Anshul Shah, CadenceSep. 27, 2022 |
One of the key goals for USB4 is to retain compatibility with the existing ecosystem of USB3.2, USB 2.0 and Thunderbolt products, and the resulting connection scales to the best mutual capability of the devices being connected. USB4 is designed to work with older versions of USB and Thunderbolt. USB4 Fabric support high throughput interconnects of 10 Gbps (for Gen 2) and 20 Gbps (for Gen 3) and supports Thunderbolt 3-compatible rates of 10.3125 Gbps (for Gen 2) and 20.625 Gbps (for Gen 3). It becomes very important to verify the Thunderbolt backward compatibility with the designs. Though the support of USB4 Interoperability with Thunderbolt 3 (TBT3) is optional in USB4 host or USB4 peripheral device and required USB4 Hub and USB4 Based Dock but it is very essential to work in the existing ecosystem.