Emerging Protocols in Machine Vision: USB4

Written by Dara Mottahed, Product Marketing at Pleora Technologies

Machine vision is transforming countless industries by empowering machines to perceive, process, and interpret visual data. As technology speedily advances, exciting and emerging protocols are being developed and adopted from other industries to enhance the efficiency, accuracy, and integration of machine vision systems.

Similarly, machine vision systems are becoming increasingly vital across various sectors, including manufacturing, healthcare, security, and automotive. These systems rely heavily upon complex protocols for data acquisition, processing, and communication. Emerging protocols are addressing the challenges of scalability, real-time processing, and interoperability, rendering machine vision more robust, versatile and trusted.

In this eighth in a series of nine emerging protocols, we feature USB4 (Universal Serial Bus 4) the most recent technical specification of the USB data communication standard. The USB Implementers Forum originally announced USB4 in 2019. USB4 enables multiple devices to dynamically share a single high-speed data link.

The key features of USB4 are:

Increased Data Transfer Speed: USB4 supports data transfer rates of up to 40 Gbps, which is double the maximum speed of USB 3.2 (20 Gbps). This makes this protocol ideal for data-heavy applications like video editing, gaming, and virtual reality.
Thunderbolt 3 Compatibility: USB4 integrates Thunderbolt 3 functionality, allowing devices with USB4 ports to connect to Thunderbolt 3 peripherals. It maintains backward compatibility with USB 3.x and USB 2.0, providing much-needed flexibility in device connections.
Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation: USB4 can dynamically allocate bandwidth between data and display protocols, optimizing the use of available bandwidth based upon the type of data being transferred. This is particularly useful for devices that handle simultaneous video and data (e.g., docking stations).
Support for Multiple Data and Display Protocols: USB4 can carry multiple protocols such as PCIe and DisplayPort over the same cable, enabling more efficient use of a single port for multiple functions, like data transfer and video output.
USB Power Delivery (USB PD) Support: USB4 supports the USB Power Delivery (USB PD) standard, allowing devices to charge quickly and deliver up to 100W of power. This support is critical for laptops, tablets, and other power-hungry devices.

The USB4 protocol is the latest standard in USB technology, designed to drastically improve data transfer speed, efficiency, and flexibility. It builds upon the foundation of previous USB versions (such as USB 3.x and USB 2.0) while integrating the high-speed capabilities of Thunderbolt 3, allowing for up to 40 Gbps data transfer rates. USB4 remains backwards compatible with older USB standards (USB 3.x and USB 2.0), allowing users to continue using their existing devices with USB4 ports.

USB4 is highly versatile and widely used in high-speed networking, high resolution displays, docking stations, high-performance computing, gaming, and medical devices, among other applications, thanks to its speed, flexibility, and integration of multiple data and display protocols.

The applications for USB4 are plentiful and include:

External Storage Devices: USB4 provides exceptionally fast data transfer rates, making it ideal for high-capacity external hard drives, SSDs, and RAID storage systems. Users can quickly transfer large files, including high-resolution videos, photos, and backups.
High-Resolution Displays: USB4 supports DisplayPort 2.0, enabling output to high-resolution displays, including 4K, 8K, and even higher resolutions. It allows users to connect multiple displays through a single USB4 port, making it perfect for productivity and creative professionals.
Audio/Video Broadcasting and Media Streaming: USB4 enables high-bandwidth video and audio streaming, supporting devices like professional cameras, camcorders, and audio interfaces used in broadcasting, video production, and live streaming.
High-Performance Computing: Devices like external GPUs (eGPUs) can leverage the high bandwidth of USB4 to connect to laptops and desktop computers, enhancing their graphical performance for gaming, video editing, and 3D rendering.
Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR): USB4’s high data transfer speeds are critical for VR and AR applications that require ultra-low latency and high throughput for immersive experiences, whether through headsets or external sensors.

USB4 is significant because it represents an important leap forward in technology for universal data transfer and device connectivity, offering several critical improvements that address the evolving needs of modern computing and consumer electronics.

USB4 is essential for tasks that involve large file transfers, such as video editing, gaming, and backup of massive data sets. This high speed is crucial in a world where data-intensive applications like 4K/8K video and virtual reality are becoming progressively more mainstream.

Whilst there are challenges such as cost of implementation, power consumption and cable length limitations, the benefits of USB4 are clear:

Speed, flexibility and integration with multiple protocols

Stay tuned for next week’s ninth and final emerging protocol in machine vision.