USB 3.1 is a specification published by the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF).
Contents
A January 2013 press release from the USB group revealed plans to update USB 3.0 to 10 Gbit/s (1250 MB/s). The group ended up creating a new USB specification, USB 3.1, which was released on 31 July 2013, replacing USB 3.0 standard. USB 3.1 specification takes over existing USB 3.0's SuperSpeed USB transfer rate, now calling it USB 3.1 Gen 1, and introduces a faster transfer rate called SuperSpeed USB 10 Gbps, also called USB 3.1 Gen 2, putting it on par with a single first-generation Thunderbolt channel. The new mode's logo features a caption stylized as SUPERSPEED+. The USB 3.1 standard increases the maximum data signaling rate to 10 Gbit/s (1250 MB/s), double that of SuperSpeed USB, and reduces line encoding overhead to just 3% by changing the encoding scheme to 128b/132b. The first USB 3.1 implementation demonstrated real-world transfer speeds of 7.2 Gbit/s.
USB 3.1 Gen 1
USB 3.1 Gen 1 has the same 5 Gbit/s SuperSpeed maximum data signaling rate as USB 3.0.
USB 3.1 Gen 2
USB 3.1 Gen 2 has a new 10 Gbit/s (1250 MB/s) SuperSpeed+ maximum data signaling rate—double that of USB 3.0.
Relation to other specifications
The USB 3.1 standard is backward compatible with USB 3.0 and USB 2.0.