Usb 4, intel ships initial usb 4.0 support for linux

In June, the USB 4 specifications were officially published. USB 4.0 enables two-lane operation on existing USB Type-C cabling and up to 40 Gbps on certified cables, while maintaining compatibility with USB3 / USB2 and Thunderbolt. 3.

USB 4 will offer up to 40 Gbps similar to Thunderbolt 3

Intel's open source engineers have submitted their initial patches for USB 4.0 support for the Linux kernel.

The Linux kernel mailing list included the initial 22 patches that provided basic support for USB 4.0. USB 4 support in its current form is less than four thousand lines of new code in the kernel. Booting is not too dramatic since USB4 is Thunderbolt based and therefore reuses existing Thunderbolt driver code in the kernel.

As we get closer to the launch of USB 4, which will feature speeds similar to Thunderbolt 3 (40 Gbps), support for PCIe and DisplayPort within the USB-C form factor, drivers are coming out that support the new standard and guarantee make the launch and transition to the latest USB version go smoothly.

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With this initial support for the Linux kernel, there is still no support for USB 4.0 power management as one of the main elements that remains to be done in the short term. But features like PCIe tunneling, DisplayPort tunneling, USB 3.x tunneling. P2P networking, firmware update, and other fundamentals are already there.

For now, support is in the pull request stage, so it should be integrated very soon, most likely with version 5.5 of the Linux kernel, if other features like power management are completed soon.

The new USB 4 standard is getting closer, bringing great benefits in data transfer speeds.

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