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A comment on The humble USB cable is part of an electrical revolution. Parent comment

Re:The humble USB cable is part of an electrical revolution by UnoriginalGuy on Tuesday October 22, 2013 @10:45AM (#6592207)
If they made USB ports reversible they wouldn't be USB anymore, and not just in shape either, the technology required to make them reversible also requires devices both upstream (e.g. computers, power bricks) and downstream (phones, tablets, etc) to "understand" that the port could be communicating in either of two modes (reverse and non-reverse, and to flip the data channels accordingly).

The technology exists. Just would require starting again from scratch.

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Re:The humble USB cable is part of an electrical revolution by quesera on Tuesday October 22, 2013 @11:36AM (#6592578)
You can make reversible connectors without intelligence (adaptiveness). Just use 2x the number of contacts, in a mirrored layout.

Requires more physical space for the same number of contacts, but USB doesn't require that many contacts to begin with.

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Re:The humble USB cable is part of an electrical revolution by cdcarter on Tuesday October 22, 2013 @03:02PM (#6593997)
This is how the older Fitbit accomplished the task and it works just fine.
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