What's up with all the USB2 Interfaces?

[Wilson]

Hello gang,

USB3 has been around for years, so, does anyone know why manufacturers insist on making interfaces with the much slower USB2 protocol? Please enlighten me.

Thank you all for your bits.

[kslight]

It is correct that the usb3 spec has been "finalized" for years, however wide builtin availability was not until mid 2012 when Intel began implementing it into their chipsets. Historically these standards and port formats change so quickly that audio manufacturers are pretty slow to change, in the interest of maximum user base, compatibility, and not devoting a ton of resources into an unadopted format. Since then there have been at least 2 more USB formats introduced (3.1 and c), see also the rollout of FireWire 400/800 interfaces and subsequently thunderbolt 1/2, PCI express, etc..

Between slow chipset adoption, to how long it takes for MS/Apple to support, to computer manufacturers using it, to competing standards....it's not a fast process for the audio manufacturer that can't afford to make the "wrong" decision.

It also seems that in this case currently Thunderbolt is more adopted as the "professional" standard when high throughput is required whereas USB is typically not seen as such.

[JWL]

Yeah, I think the main reason one would use USB is for convenience and widespread compatibility. USB2 works. I can easily get 16 channels of i/o with my mobile USB2 rig, which is more than enough for what I do.

If I needed something with higher horsepower I'd probably look into Thunderbolt.