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Comment by tuxracer | Hacker News Reader

Really disappointing there doesn't appear to be a USB-C option

Or a blue bike shed option, for that matter.

I know it may be surprising, but bandwidth is a really important factor for speed in deep learning, and USB-C would help with that.

My assumption is that they never would build more capacity into a device, whose only interface was USB 2.0, than USB 2.0 can actually handle.

I thought the stick was USB 3.0?

O.K. yes.

I went back, looked, and yes it does support USB 3.0. Actually given the chip itself also apparently supports GigE it's a shame there isn't the option with that brought out.

USB-C is a connector, and has no effect on speed.

I think you're referring to USB 3.1 gen2, which would double the theoretical bandwidth to 10Gbps.

If so I'm amazed, because I have never seen someone conflate those two before. I've seen plenty of people conflate USB-C and USB 3 in general, but not specifically thinking USB-C implies the 10gbps mode.

As make3 said, bandwidth can be important, but it's also becoming more-so the case that people have computers that only come with USB-C. Obviously not a dealbreaker since people can just buy an adapter, but it's an issue worth bringing up.

Really? I'm not a fan of USB-C being yet another connector that's easy to snap off. I break a USB cable every few days, and sometimes a socket just gets torqued off a PCB. The other day I had a phone on the edge of my table and I bumped the cable from the top with my elbow. Snap! The big-old A connectors are much, much harder to break, especially if the case has a solid metal rectangle that holds the USB connector in place.

I still wish though USB connectors had some kind of rubber padding around them. Like the computer IEC power connectors -- no matter what you do it's virtually impossible to break cable or socket.

Even DB9 connectors were better. I never broke one in the many years I used them. Rock solid and you could even screw them in.

> I'm not a fan of USB-C being yet another connector that's easy to snap off.

I initially had the same concern, but after using USB-C heavily for over a year now, not had one instance of a connector failing.

> I break a USB cable every few days

Either you're doing it wrong (and really careless / buy really cheap cables) or you're doing some highly specialized thing which means the feedback should be caveated saying I'm in "xyz field, which means i break far more USB cables than most ever will".

"doing it wrong"

I never had this problem before USB. I also break a lot of USB cables in the field, e.g. hiking, and that never used to be a problem with barrel connectors. USB connectors just are not designed for people who don't sit in an office all day.

The "connector" has nothing to do with it compared to older cables imho. The wires in something like a DB9/PS2 cable were heavier grade, but the durability of the connector wasn't measurable better (at least not with a good USB-A cable). If you're continually breaking them, I recommend upgrading to braided cables. I abuse the heck out of them and still haven't had one fail that I can remember.

It's mostly the connector that breaks, not the cable itself. I've tried all that reinforced stuff to no avail. One broke yesterday when I put my phone in my pocket while charging, and sat down on a chair. Seems like a pretty common use case to me.

Did you used to sit on DB9 connectors that were plugged in and inside your pocket? That might be why you see more breakage now.

A usb-c to type A adapter should be fine in the early stages. I'm sure USB-c will be on it's way soon. Even with the backing of Intel, they still need to factor in development time and support for different hardware, etc. They would gain little from supporting USB-C at this stage.

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