USB 3.2 Gen2 loopback

[jasonlai]

USB 3.0 loopback of Passmark is good for out testing, but so far the trend of USB spec is higher specification that plug can't use well by it , what milestone of USB 3.2 gen2 developing you can reveal ?

[David (PassMark)]

As at May 2020, current plugs support what is now called USB 3.2 Gen 1. (previously called just USB3.0). Which is 5 Gbit/s.

We are looking at Gen 2 (and Gen 2x2 & Thunderbolt 3/USB4) but at the moment there is no silicon available to do these speeds at a reasonable price. Any solution would be $100s of dollars in low volumes. For example a FPGA solution is available today, but it would be $1000+ per card. We hope and expect this to change towards the end of this year, but we don't have a fixed date at this point in time,

[MichaelMB]

Hi there,

End of the year has passed. So do you have any news on this topic? Were currently holding off purchasing waiting for higher grade testers.

[David (PassMark)]

There is still no cost effective silicon available for Gen2x2. (there are NVMe bridge chips and a few other chips for very specific applications or host controllers for motherboards, but nothing that is programable that can go into a end point device). Or at least nothing we are aware of.

There are FPGA solutions and we are looking at that again. But at USB4 speeds it might be up to $5000 a test card.

So we won't have any Gen2x2 (or USB4) solution in Q1 2021.

Would love to give a precise date, but we don't have one as yet.

[MichaelMB]

Sure, I understand it's not feasible yet. Thanks for the Update anyway.

[Derek@Sealevel]

Any update on this topic? We'd be very interesting in Gen 2x2 capable test hardware.

[David (PassMark)]

Not really.

There still isn't suitable silicon, but we are checking the market every month or so.
There are a few host controllers (to go onto PC motherboards and a couple of hub controllers), but almost nothing for high speed peripherals.

[Halil]

Hi Passmark Team, we would be also very happy if the higher generation of USB test plugs ill be available. Thanks!

[kenny.wu]

Hi Passmark Team, any update on this topic? Thanks!

[David (PassMark)]

Yes. Some progress. We have a few different bits of prototype hardware to explore some solutions.
Some looked promising but ultimately weren't suitable. We looked at just doing a load testing device, that couldn't report any errors, for a while, but dismissed this as not being very useful.

But we have some prototype hardware now that does the job up to 10Gbit/s with a possible path to 20Gbit/s later on.
Very good speeds (after the overheads are taken into account) and also very good error reporting.
The prototype hardware was around $4000USD for the board. But this will come down a lot once we get to mass production.

Screen shot of it running is below.

But there is still a fairly long road to getting any hardware manufactured in bulk. So even assuming this solution ultimately fully works, it will still be several months before we have a product to sell.

[jinefune]

Thanks for the Update anyway.

[Derek@Sealevel]

Exciting news about SS+ test hardware! Any progress on it since the last post? Estimated release date?

[David (PassMark)]

No date. If I have learnt anything was past hardware development, it always takes a lot longer than expected.
I'd be disappointed if we didn't have some type of solution in 2024 however.

[Muny]

I've been eagerly watching this thread. Any updates as of late?

A device like this would be useful to us especially for automated end-of-line product testing.

[David (PassMark)]

Development priority was put on the new larger USB-PD tested (for 200W+ testing). Current lower wattage version PD-tester is here. But that is now at the PCB manufacturer.

But loopback plug update is the next priority & we are working on it.
Again, no precise date. But this year (2024).