USBC

There is a small and notable chip in our USB-C cables. This is the so-called “e-Marker”, which is especially important. The reason is simple: when we connect a cable to a device, it is responsible for indicating to those devices whether the cable supports more or less transmission or charging speed, for example. USB-C chaos is a little less chaos. USB-C connectors completely dominate the market, especially after European regulations that require them to be used to charge mobile phones and other devices. Although they have become the Swiss army knife for connecting all types of devices and peripherals, it is not easy to know what we can do with a cable when we connect it to our mobile phone or laptop, for example. And that’s where the e-Marker chip (Electronically Marked ID chip) comes in, a fundamental yet invisible component of the connectivity of our devices. In Xataka We criticize the EU a lot with its obsession with regulating Big Tech. There are at least two examples that justify this obsession A chip to identify everything. The official specification of the USB-C standard clearly indicates the mission of this chip, which is responsible for showing what capabilities the cable in question has. The document that talks about this chip is the one dedicated to USB Power Delivery, the power delivery function through these cables. Specifically, the identification data includes: Manufacturer and model of the cable. Signaling protocol: that indicates the maximum transmission speedthat is, if it is a cable with USB 2.0 support, or USB 3.2 of one generation or another (Gen 1, Gen 2, etc.). Active construction (in long cables there may be chips that regenerate data signal to act as a kind of repeater) or passive construction (they do not alter the data signal). How much power does the VCONN pin (intended to power accessories) consume? Whether the cable can support 3A (standard) or 5A (required for powers from 100 W to 240 W). Latency (signal delay over the cable). RX/TX directionality (how the high-speed cable pairs are configured). SOP Controller Mode: Whether the cable controller can communicate independently with the charger or device Hardware/firmware version. One of the sections of the USB Power Delivery specification that talks about this chip. Source: USB.org An active safety mechanism. The e-Marker is not only official, but is a mandatory part of the USB Power Delivery (USB-PD) specification dictated by the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF). This chip acts as an active safety mechanism, and during the power negotiation phase, the chip tells the charger “I am a cable certified to support up to 100W” (for example). If the charger does not receive that digital confirmation, it will assume that the cable is basic and cheap, restricting the flow of power or data transmission. Does your phone charge slowly or is the transfer using pedals? In fact, if a USB-C cable does not have an e-Marker chip, most device drivers will automatically treat it as a USB 2.0 cable. That means that even if the cable is physically capable of more, the speed will be limited to 480 Mbps maximum, and charging will also be slower. With 3A you can reach 60 W at 20 V, so even so this section is not so affected and it also depends on the charging capacity of the charger. {“videoId”:”x8dmqaj”,”autoplay”:false,”title”:”One USB-C TO RULE THEM ALL- the European Union approves a single charger for mobile phones”, “tag”:”webedia-prod”, “duration”:”54″} The rails. High-speed cables (USB 3.2, USB4, Thunderbolt) have multiple pairs of copper wires designed to transmit data in parallel. The e-Marker tells the device “I have all the threads necessary to activate dual lane mode.” If this confirmation does not arrive, the transfer speed is again limited. The e-Marker on long cables. Another function of the e-Marker, as we said, is to identify the length of the cable. At high transmission speeds the signal degrades very quickly, and the e-Marker is responsible for notifying you, allowing the device (mobile phone, computer) to adjust the signal strength to compensate for potential data loss. Support for alternative video modes. Another option that this chip enables is to indicate what video connection standards the USB-C cable in question supports, and if, for example, it has the necessary bandwidth for 4K or 8K resolutions. There are “readers” of the information provided by the e-Marker chip, although they are not cheap: this one from ChargerLAB costs about 140 euros. Two key pins. The “brains” of a USB-C connector are located on two specific pins known as the configuration channel (CC). These pins (CC1 and CC2) allow, for example, the orientation or reversibility to be detected. Since the connector is reversible, the device needs to know which side you inserted the cable to activate the appropriate data pins (TX/RX). When connecting it, the side will be identified, and based on that the rest of the pins are switched for transmission. The other pin of the configuration channel becomes Vconn to power the e-Marker chip. In Xataka | Mobile phone manufacturers first stopped including the charger with every purchase. Your next threat is clear: the USB cable (function() { window._JS_MODULES = window._JS_MODULES || {}; var headElement = document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)(0); if (_JS_MODULES.instagram) { var instagramScript = document.createElement(‘script’); instagramScript.src=”https://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js”; instagramScript.async = true; instagramScript.defer = true; headElement.appendChild(instagramScript); – The news There is an invisible chip in every USB-C cable that decides whether your phone charges fast or slow: almost no one knows it exists was originally published in Xataka by Javier Pastor .