Eli5: How is it possible that advancement in USB allows us to transfer larger data in faster speed, yet the diameter of the wire does not change.
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USB 3 added two extra pairs of wires for superspeed 5/10gbps data transfer, requiring thicker cables than usb2.
USB 3.2 supports the optional dual lane mode which uses two more superspeed wire pairs when using a type c connector on each end, although not every c-to-c cable includes these (but also were often used for earlier USB cables so that protocols such as Displayport could work.
There isn’t just one wire. There are multiple wires and USB 3.0 connectors have more than USB 2.0 connectors.
Also, how you encode and transfer data can allow for greater speeds by reducing overhead.
The S in USB is for serial.
In the old days many connectors were not serial and had often bigger and bigger wires to send multiple bits at the same time.
Serial connectors send these bits not next to each other over different wires but one after the other in series. This sounds like it would be slower but actually works out to be much easier and faster in practice when done right.
In practice the very first USB cables contained 4 wires to allow the transfer of data and power (including ground) via a single cable.
USB 3 added two extra pairs of wires for super speed data and some additional extra wires for power and ground for a total of 11 actual wires in the cable
USB 3.2 uses the existing wires slightly differently than originally intended to send more data over the same cable.
It is still a rather thin cable all things considered.
The diameter of the wire was never the limiting factor. Larger wires are only necessary when you’re trying to transmit larger electric currents, but large currents are not needed for faster data transmission. The data limit for USB is basically the speed with which the transmitting device can turn the signal current on and off again, and the ability of the receiving device to distinguish a signal changing at that speed.
Just realise that we’re much better at cutting time into little pieces than cutting space into little pieces. So instead of adding more wires, we use the same wires but with more data per piece of time.
As an aside, you can make wires *too* small, such that electrons can actually fly out the corners. There probably limits to how fast you can flip bits, but we’re not there yet.
There’s no need to, no one really complains that the wire is too thick. But if it was thinner it runs of the risk of easily snapping. Any thicker and it’s not a wire.
ELI5 …. How big is your ear? Does your ear ever change in size? Of course not.
So if I talk really slowly to you … you can understand me. It might take me 3 minutes to say a poem if I talk really slowly.
But if I start talking really really fast, I can probably say the same poem in only one minute!
But did your ear need to become bigger to hear me talking faster?
No.
I just talked faster.
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