USB 1.1 vs. USB4 2.0

USB 1.1, released in September 1998, was the first widely adopted USB standard -- 12 Mbit/s Full Speed for most peripherals, with a 1.5 Mbit/s Low Speed mode for mice and keyboards. The original USB 1.0 from January 1996 saw little real-world adoption before 1.1 quickly superseded it.

USB4 2.0, released September 2022, doubles USB4's ceiling to 80 Gbit/s symmetric -- or an asymmetric 120/40 Gbit/s split favoring one direction for high-bandwidth uses like external displays. It requires new cables explicitly rated for the higher speed; existing USB4 v1 cables aren't guaranteed to reach it.