[Material evaluation] USB4 AOC evaluates the "light copper fusion" high-speed super power

As early as 2019, USB-IF announced the USB4 specification, which not only doubled the bandwidth of 40Gbps to USB3.2 Gen2x2, but also fully unified the interface and protocol. Although the USB4 interface has gradually become popular on mainstream PCs, the popularity of related equipment is not high, mainly because the price is relatively expensive.

For example, in terms of wire manufacturing, not only the attenuation of high-frequency signals on connectors/PCB and the impact of electromagnetic interference (EMI) should be considered, but also the impedance matching requirements for cables are extremely strict. In order to ensure the transmission rate and signal quality, the length of the traditional USB4 copper wire is usually only about 0.8 meters. If the length of the wire is increased, more requirements will be put forward for the technology and manufacturing process, and higher costs will be brought. Until the emergence of the USB4 AOC, this impasse is really broken.

AOC (Active Optical Cable) is a unique cable. It uses a combination of optical fiber and copper cable to transmit high-speed signals by optical fiber, while low-speed signals are still transmitted by copper cable, breaking through the limitations of traditional copper cable. In particular, longer wires have cost advantages, The Storhm brand USB4 AOC cable we tested this time also uses this solution.

one Appearance list Fine diameter flexible non winding

Viewed from the outside, this USB4 AOC cable uses a light blue gray braided outer layer, which has good tensile strength, and is equipped with plastic optical fiber inside, making the wire extremely flexible. The winding radius can reach 10mm, and it is very flat without winding. This is a completely different hands-on experience from the traditional USB4 wire. According to the manufacturer, glass fiber is also available.

Compared with the traditional USB4 cable, the diameter of the USB4 AOC cable is a little smaller. This is because the traditional USB4 cable uses fully equipped thick diameter copper cables to ensure the quality of signal transmission. In addition, in order to ensure the signal quality and transmission bandwidth, the traditional USB4 cable is usually only 0.8 meters long, while this USB4 AOC cable can support a maximum transmission distance of 5 meters. The selected sample for evaluation is 6 feet long, or 1.82 meters long.

USB4 AOC is a full-featured optoelectronic hybrid cable. It not only supports 40Gbps USB4 data transmission, but also downward compatible USB3.2, USB2.0 and DP1.4 video transmission. It can support up to 4K 144Hz/8K 60Hz HDR signals. In addition, it can support up to 240W high power fast charging.

Both ends of the USB4 AOC are Type-C interfaces. One side of the plug is marked with 40Gbps bandwidth and 60W fast charging power. The plug has a relatively long length, which is due to the embedded photoelectric conversion circuit.

On the other side of the plug is the brand logo of Storm.

two Internal structure analysis

The structure of USB4 AOC is divided into two parts: optical path and circuit. The optical path is responsible for USB4, USB3.2 and DisplayPort 1.4 high-speed protocols, while the circuit is responsible for USB2.0, optical path system power supply and various fast charging protocols. From the anatomy of the wire, the outermost layer is braided sheath, and the inner layer is made of rubber. The inner metal shielding mesh is wrapped with 7-core fast charging/power supply/low-speed protocol copper cable and 4-core USB4/USB3.2/DP1.4 high-speed optical fiber, which can be said to be a true "optical copper integration".

Close up of 4-core optical fiber. The plastic optical fiber body with high light conductivity is wrapped with a protective shield layer to ensure that the optical signals do not interfere with each other, while improving the strength and flexibility of the optical fiber.

At the USB4 AOC product press conference, we showed everyone the core components of USB4 AOC, namely the internal components of the plugs at both ends, and used the OpticalIn Package, which integrates multiple chips with different functions (including but not limited to optical chips, electronic chips and optical devices) into one package (similar to the SIP of smart phones), So as to realize complete functions.

In addition to USB4 AOC, Yaoxin Technology also provides a variety of AOC interconnection solutions based on OIP, such as DisplayPort, HDMI, USB protocols, and a full range of active optical fiber products such as Type-A, Type-C, Micro-B, customized interfaces, which basically cover all kinds of long-distance, low-cost, lossless and full bandwidth data/video signal transmission scenarios.

three Comprehensive test high performance and full function

In view of the characteristics of USB4 AOC, we conducted comprehensive tests from three functions: data transmission, video signal transmission and fast charging. For data transmission test, we used Lenovo Xiaoxin PRO14 laptop with USB4 Type-C interface, USB4 mobile hard disk box with ASM2464 master chip+TiPlus7100 PCIe4.0 NVMe M.2 1TB solid state disk. Tested by Crystal Disk Mark, the read/write speed is 3797.12MB/s and 3688.33MB/s, reaching the USB4 transmission bandwidth standard.

AJA System Test is a test developed according to the requirements of digital video production Software To quickly evaluate the performance of storage devices by simulating the process of writing and reading video files. Set 16GB file size, 3840x2160 UltraHD resolution and 10bit YUV encoding format in the software, and the actual test read/write speed has reached 3242MB/s and 2976MB/s, which also meets the performance standard of USB4.

Next is video signal transmission test. This USB4 AOC supports the DP1.4 standard and can support video signals up to 4K 144Hz/8K 60Hz. In actual test, Lenovo Saver Y9000P game notebook connected with VX2781-4K-PRO display and equipped with RTX4060 independent graphics card perfectly output 4K 144Hz signal and opened high dynamic range (i.e. HDR).

Finally, we used Hangjia 100W GaN PD charger to charge Lenovo Xiaoxin PRO14 notebook, and used POWER-Z tester to monitor the charging. Although this USB4 AOC nominally supports 60W fast charging, POWER-Z shows that the charging voltage/current reaches 18.5V 4.5A, and the power reaches 83.3W! It can be seen that the copper materials inside are very real.

four last

USB， It is one of the oldest interfaces in the history of computers, and also one of the most confusing type/rate standards. With the advantages of high bandwidth, data/graphics/high power fast charging and other multi-channel, forward and reverse plug and high usability, Type-C has achieved unity in PCs, smartphones, tablets and other devices, and USB4 Type-C is truly full-featured. The USB4 AOC breaks through the length of 0.8 meters of traditional copper cable, supports 40Gbps and 8K 60Hz lossless HDR transmission at the same time, and requires no additional circuit and equipment assistance. According to Yaoxin Technology, in the third quarter of 2024, it will launch a program that supports the full function of USB440G, featuring downward compatibility with all USB devices, no directional restrictions, and no difference from traditional copper wires in use, which will break people's understanding of AOC in the past! We will further launch the USB4 V2.0 80Gbps scheme at the beginning of 2025 to meet the high-speed data transmission needs of future equipment. Let's wait and see.

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