Apart from the processors, I'm amazed/bewildered that USB is now complex enough, that the <i>power component</i> of it has its own serial communication protocol (USB-PD), which <i>also</i> has a vendor registry and is extensible with proprietary messages - and by the looks of it, is already in widespread use for all sorts of things that have nothing to do with power delivery.<p>Isn't this sort of reinventing USB on top of USB?
Once again i'm amazed what ALSO has a processor in it. I'm wondering if at some point I'll just see it as normal that nearly every device, no matter how static it may seem, has more processing power than my first computer.
What bothers me, is the prevalence of counterfeit and just plain bad-quality, cheap chips.<p>These become so low-cost that corporate buyers pretty much have no choice, but to use them.<p>The result, is things like expensive Bluetooth headsets, crapping out, after a year. I have been through quite a few.<p>I/O ports see a lot of use (even virtual ones). Those are some of the hardest-working chips in a device. Not a good place for cheap dross; but they are also present in almost every device out there. Lots of money to be made.<p>To give Apple credit, I think they are fairly serious about keeping the quality of their internals up to snuff.<p><i>> cursed looking trampolines</i><p>I like that.<p>BTW: I do think this is an awesome write-up, and things like it, are why I like this place.
My brand new M1 Mackbook Pro has only one working port. I didn't notice it until I tried to save something to a USB drive. Neither charging nor USB works on that port. Talking to Apple tomorrow. Hopefully still under warranty.
Debugging hardware for the protocol described in the article:<p><a href="https://github.com/AsahiLinux/vdmtool" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/AsahiLinux/vdmtool</a>
One thing this article reminded me of is just how damned prevalent simple ARM based CPUs are in the world. Piles and piles of ARM chips running Linux, or in Apple's case some kind of Darwin derived OS. It doesn't talk about processing power, but these tiny embedded CPUs are far more powerful than a Commodore 64 or most early CP/M or DOS based systems which many small businesses relied on.<p>Just crazy to think about.
So, basically, apple copied samsung's debug hacks to "hide" data in the power lines of the USB plug?<p>the "end result" of the appl feature is exactly the same as the samsung one described in this paper <a href="https://ntnuopen.ntnu.no/ntnu-xmlui/bitstream/handle/11250/2632162/bookchapter.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://ntnuopen.ntnu.no/ntnu-xmlui/bitstream/handle/11250/2...</a>
Reading this makes me wonder whether there is a case of non-open hardware and software but forced open up Api. Using modular hardware the effort turned into various other components including Hp etc. Can private market survived with this. But at that same time if a few firm controlling all these can we be slave to these firms and countries. No good answer.