There's a possibility that such a docking station will feature one or more of the familiar blue USB 3.0 ports or even USB-C ports just for fun and confusion. Perhaps it'll even be possible to drive a 4k60 monitor this way. With compression you can even do a dual display adapter! At least for 1080p60 or 4k30 you can. Remember, DisplayLink is the technology behind USB-to-DVI adapter but this time the bandwidth is quite there to do uncompressed video over USB 3.1 - it's less than half of the available bandwidth. Theoretically you could even build an adapter which has all sorts of ports on it and a button that switches which one is active.Įven more confusion will arise when accessory manufacturers will create a SuperSpeed+ "docking station" that has a kind of DisplayLink chip in it. There will be a lot of confusion because the charging only USB C connector on the (some video)/USB2/(USB C charging port) adapters is visually not distinguishable from the versatile port on the machine. The latter is a usual High Speed USB 2.0 port, goes into a USB for USB 2.0 devices. You can still use the power delivery lanes and the USB 2.0 port. However, let me emphasize again: if you do this then your superspeed+ USB is not there. This can be a lot of things, currently DisplayPort, HDMI, MHL is supported but the potential is there for Ethernet and even PCI Express and whatnot. Then you can connect this to a speedier version of the plain old USB hub and have as many USB 1.1/2.0/3.0/3.1 devices connect to the hub as you wish. Now, the high speed data path can be used for really speedy USB, 10 GBit/s "Superspeed+" mode. It is, in fact several connectors in one: Please read the USB specifications, including USB Type-C, for more details:
Use an old USB Type-A device (this can also be a USB Type-A hub with multiple devices).Note that using a USB-C to HDMI or USB-C to VGA adapter you can simultaneously: Thereby making old USB devices, like a keyboard or a scanner, available to your host. For example an Apple USB-C to USB, USB-C to HDMI or USB-C to VGA adapter. You could add a USB Type-C to USB Type-A hub or adapter. If you add this to a laptop with only 1 USB Type-C port (and this laptop also charges via that same USB Type-C port, like the MacBook 12" mid-2015), then you cannot use the hard drive and charge the laptop simultaneously, unless you add a USB Type-C hub (that allows for charging) between the laptop and the hard drive. LaCie announced a USB Type-C external hard drive. In that sense, USB Type-C hubs work just like 'normal' USB hubs. With a USB Type-C hub, you could add multiple USB Type-C devices, for example 2 USB Type-C monitors, as long as the host can drive/support them. USB 3.1 provides backwards compatibility to older USB standards, therefore you would be able to add older USB devices with the use of an adapter or if the hub provides older UBS Type-A ports. USB Type-C hubs will need to comply with the USB 3.1 specifications. Multiple USB Type-A UFP (Upstream Facing Ports) connecting to devices or another hub (USB Type-A are the old USB ports).Multiple USB Type-C UFP (Upstream Facing Ports) connecting to devices or another hub.One USB Type-C DFP (Downstream Facing Port) connecting to the host.That being said, you will need a USB Type-C hub. USB Type-C does not allow daisy chaining like Thunderbolt or FireWire. Although Apple named it USB-C, it's officially called USB Type-C.