As we note in our USB 4 FAQ, very few companies have announced USB 4 products of any kind so, when someone announces an officially-certified USB 4 cable, it's newsworthy. Club 3D has introduced one of the industry's first USB 4 certified cables and it supports all the features that were announced for the standard, including data transfer rates of up to 40 Gbps, alternate modes as well as a 100W power delivery.
Modern interconnection standards promise high performance and a host of additional features like power delivery, but in many cases actual cables do not support announced speed and/or capabilities as manufacturers are eager to cut down their costs by reducing the number of wires inside their cables (or by other means) yet continue using advertised brands. To tackle this problem in case of the latest USB 4 standard, the USB Implementers Forum has introduced two certification programs that verify capabilities of a particular cable: USB 20 Gbps and USB 40 Gbps.
The Club 3D USB4 Type-C Gen3x2 bi-directional cable CAC-1571 is one of the first cables to carry USB IF's 'Certified USB 40 Gbps' logo, which means that the product supports the maximum speed and all of USB 4's advertised capabilities. The list includes the following:
- Bandwidth up to 40 Gbps
- Power Delivery up to 100W
- DisplayPort Alt Mode 2.0 (DisplayPort 2.0 over USB 4)
- PCI Express support
- Backwards compatibility with USB 3.2, USB 2.0, and Thunderbolt 3
The CAC-1571 comes with an E-mark IC that disclose features and capabilities of the cable to various devices, including hosts, chargers, and hubs.
The cable is 0.8 meters/2.62 feet long, which is typical for many Thunderbolt 3 cables supplied with devices today.
While Club 3D lists the USB 4 CAC-1571 cable at its website, the company yet has to start its shipments. Pricing of the cable is still unknown.
