Hacker News Reader

Comment by LukaD | Hacker News Reader

This looks really cool, but USB-A on the wireless adapter? Really?

Pretty sure the vast majority of device ports on plugged-in devices in my house are still USB-A. And the only non-phone/tablet devices I have that are C-only are Apple, I’m pretty sure. Everything else has at least one A port.

It’s only just getting to the point that if I search for USB peripherals (mice, flash sticks, whatever) in a non-Apple online computer hardware store without specifying I want USB-C, some of the first page results might be USB-C.

USB-A appears poised to remain the safe choice that least-often demands your customer also buy an adapter for another couple years, minimum.

It is my second laptop I got from my employer (replacement every few years) and it also has just usb c ports. I hate plugging in usb-a adapter. I would at least expect adapter included for usb c.

I'st much less likely to break a usba dongle compare to usb c though.(the area is much mcuh bjgger) And I don't think the dongle really need the 40gb potential of a usbc port.

I mean.. my X670E motherboard (a high end, modern mobo!) has only ONE usb-c port.. it has, in comparison, 3 usb-a 10gbps ports and another 4x usb-a 5gbps ports. Given the headset's main use case to be plugged in is for PC-VR game streaming, it makes sense that they'd go with USB-A. Maybe in a few years they can switch but right now most desktop mobos barely even have usb-c.

Some motherboard have a rear USB-C, but no internal front panel header.

Desktop is so far behind on ports.

USB-C requires additional "Type C Port Controller" which does increase complexity compared to USB-A

Sure, but no desktop motherboard is cheap nowadays. And laptops all get one or more USB-C ports.

It is still a major non-trivial difference between implementing USB-A header (super trivial, just wire up the lines) and implementing USB-C - needs additional TCPC with enough ports, located nearby enough, plus flash rom, plus possibly an extra interfacing chip per each port. And that's if you only want reasonable USB-C that does just USB with maybe a bit of Power Delivery (but not too much). And then you need to ensure firmware handles it right (and that's not including bugs like Intel "firmware quality" leading to broken flash roms on entire product lines with thunderbolt controllers).

There's a reason why USB-C ports on laptops are often very... "clustered", let's say. Makes it reasonably easy to route signals if you're routing just what's essentially USB+DP or USB4, and I2C, and put 2 port capable TCPC and necessary switching and support circuitry near the port.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com