New USB Type-C to HDMI spec lets you ditch the dongle

HDMI Alt Mode allows HDMI video to pass along a USB-C cable dongle-free.

Read the whole story

 

[gbjbaanb]

Wonderful, fantastic, brilliant.... oh, broken. You'd think they would have supported 4k video at a proper refresh as such monitors and TVs are becoming much more popular. No doubt they'll issue a revision at some point and then we'll have some USB cables that do not do HDMI, some that do HDMI 1.4 and then some that do HDMI 2.0 with no real indication which is which.

I thought the problem with USB "high speed" and "super speed" was enough pain already.

B- chaps, good work but must do better.

 

[zladuric]

gbjbaanb[/url]":3lfr5zps]No doubt they'll issue a revision

... and charge for it. It's "HDMI Licensing", after all.

 

[erendorn]

daemonios[/url]":1xhkuwlr]Oh good, another standard!


And of course it's not backwards compatible. Because who wants you to keep all your old gear for more than a couple of years, right? I really wish these industry groups would come up with an ACTUAL standard to replace Ethernet, USB, HDMI, DisplayPort, Thunderbolt, eSATA and whatever other "standards" are currently in use.

On the bright side, proprietary smartphone connectors are all but dead. That's progress, I guess.

All these have different goals in mind in terms of bandwidth, length of cable, cost, guaranteed compatibility, etc.. They also have quite diffferent hardware sources anyway (so backward compatibility is physically impossible). You cannot really make a single standard that is competitive with all specialized interfaces on all grounds.

Thunderbolt 3 over type C is already a well balanced swissknife solution.

 

[Silver47]

Find it amusing that it supports CEC, guess that means the TV could just turn on and switch to the right input straight away and volume controls the to volume rather than the tablet in theory.

As for poor old HEC, such a great idea just never saw the right implementation .

Don't think ARC seems necessary...

 

[adipose]

As bad as it is, it's one more thing that can be supported over usb-c. That can only be a good thing. Now, make a serious networking standard over usb-c and we can be done.

 

[gbjbaanb]

adipose[/url]":3h1h7p06]As bad as it is, it's one more thing that can be supported over usb-c. That can only be a good thing. Now, make a serious networking standard over usb-c and we can be done.

Isn't ethernet support an option over HDMI, and so also over the type-C running HDMI signals? Or did they fudge that too?

Ah yes, it turns out it does support ethernet over HDMI over type-C cables using HEC.

 

[erendorn]

adipose[/url]":36u2xml7]As bad as it is, it's one more thing that can be supported over usb-c. That can only be a good thing. Now, make a serious networking standard over usb-c and we can be done.

I'm waiting for the optical variant (and compatible routers), so that I can finally run 10+Gbps lan at home

 

[Deleted member 192806]

Be nice if the Raspberry Pi had Type-C.

 

[XTF]

If only TV's supported DP too...

 

[Deleted member 192806]

erendorn[/url]":69xpueqi]

adipose[/url]":69xpueqi]As bad as it is, it's one more thing that can be supported over usb-c. That can only be a good thing. Now, make a serious networking standard over usb-c and we can be done.

I'm waiting for the optical variant (and compatible routers), so that I can finally run 10+Gbps lan at home

For $800+ you can have a 10+ Gbps lan.

 

[cse84]

High Dynamic Resolution (HDR)

I always knew HDR as High Dynamic Range. Is there a typo in the article or is there yet another competing expansion for a three-letter acronym that I haven't heard of?

 

[Statistical]

Indeed, Thunderbolt 3 is quickly becoming the standard connection on laptops, acting as a "superset" host for USB 3.1 (at full 10Gbps speed), DisplayPort 1.3, PCI Express Gen 3 (enabling external graphics card docks like the Razer Core)

I don't believe this is correct. TB3 only support DP 1.2 not DP 1.3. Still even DP 1.2 supports 4K @ 60 Hz which is a hell of a lot more useful than HDMI 1.4b.

usb (protocol not the physical port) simply lacks the bandwidth for 4K at higher frame rates. It would be nice if in the future all "usb-c" ports were TB3 ports (a superset of usb 3).

 

[Bernardo Verda]

Proprietary DRM control-freakery vanquishes technological possibilities/opportunities yet once again?

 

[unequivocal]

daemonios[/url]":38rs51qk]Oh good, another standard!

[suppressed graphic, since it is annoying me]

And of course it's not backwards compatible. Because who wants you to keep all your old gear for more than a couple of years, right? I really wish these industry groups would come up with an ACTUAL standard to replace Ethernet, USB, HDMI, DisplayPort, Thunderbolt, eSATA and whatever other "standards" are currently in use.

On the bright side, proprietary smartphone connectors are all but dead. That's progress, I guess.

I appreciate your point, but I'd like to submit a small proposal that we here at Ars stop posting this comic. It made its point, and now it just feels like a mandatory "First post!" kind of comment, that we used to get on Slashdot. No offense to your post, but just a thought for all of us in the future..

 

[grrrz]

bottom line from the merge of usb 3 and thunderbolt 3 and its generalization on pc for me: I will be able to use my firewire stuffs on any mac or pc I buy in the future! sweet!

 

[evan_s]

Statistical[/url]":2hdbdhn1]

Indeed, Thunderbolt 3 is quickly becoming the standard connection on laptops, acting as a "superset" host for USB 3.1 (at full 10Gbps speed), DisplayPort 1.3, PCI Express Gen 3 (enabling external graphics card docks like the Razer Core)

I don't believe this is correct. TB3 only support DP 1.2 not DP 1.3. Still even DP 1.2 supports 4K @ 60 Hz which is a hell of a lot more useful than HDMI 1.4b.

usb (protocol not the physical port) simply lacks the bandwidth for 4K at higher frame rates. It would be nice if in the future all "usb-c" ports were TB3 ports (a superset of usb 3).

The Alt mode on usb-c ports is fundamentally very simple. It simply uses software control switches (muxes) to connect the pins on the USB type c port to something other than the USB controller. As it stands there are at least 5 different ways you can have USB to some sort of video port cable/adapter and it is almost impossible to build a single port that would work with all the cables.

1. USB to X adapter that is just a USB device. They exist for usb 2 and no reason why one couldn't be done with USB 2 or 3 with a type c connector.
2. Display Port alt mode which supports up to v1.3. Can be a straight USB C to Display Port cable or use a Display Port to hdmi/vga/etc.
3. MHL alt mode. One expect this to be a USB C to HDMI cable but would actually require MHL support on both devices.
4. Thunderbolt alt mode. Supports thunderbolt 3 which includes Display Port v1.2.
5. HDMI alt mode. The latest alt mode. Should require no support on the HDMI end of the cable but the USB-C end requires hardware support to route the HDMI signal from some HDMI source to the correct pins on the USB-C port.
6. Alt mode is an open standard so others are possible but I can't think of any major current display standards that aren't already covered. A new display standard could be build and use alt mode tho.

This ends up making things confusing and a pain for consumers as the capability of the port is really unclear. The Power Delivery spec does the same for charging or powering devices via usb type c.

Making all usb C ports Thunderbolt ports is very unlikely because of the number of PCI-E lanes it would require and having to route the Display Port signal for the port(s). There is just no way to support these two things for the quantity of usb ports that your typical computer supports. Might be able to manage the 2-4 ports on a typical laptop but not the 12+ usb ports typical on a desktop.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_Type-C#Alternate_Mode

 

[obarthelemy]

The USB-C situation is gearing up to be a huge mess, with tens of possible features that can't be grokked w/o a manual. With my dear old dad able to cram an ethernet cable into a USB-A socket, I can't wait for him to explode something by plugging USB-C power into... some other USB-C socket. Or the opposite. Or both.

 

[daemonios]

unequivocal[/url]":2izxll4a]

daemonios[/url]":2izxll4a]Oh good, another standard!

[suppressed graphic, since it is annoying me]

And of course it's not backwards compatible. Because who wants you to keep all your old gear for more than a couple of years, right? I really wish these industry groups would come up with an ACTUAL standard to replace Ethernet, USB, HDMI, DisplayPort, Thunderbolt, eSATA and whatever other "standards" are currently in use.

On the bright side, proprietary smartphone connectors are all but dead. That's progress, I guess.

I appreciate your point, but I'd like to submit a small proposal that we here at Ars stop posting this comic. It made its point, and now it just feels like a mandatory "First post!" kind of comment, that we used to get on Slashdot. No offense to your post, but just a thought for all of us in the future..

I'm not one to come here and shout "first!", it's just that the story immediately reminded me of this. Pop culture references, for better or worse

The fact remains that, as some of these standards already show, it would be possible to have several protocols over the same wires and connectors, yet instead of reducing those we keep adding to the list.

Some specialized uses might require special connectors and cables to ensure proper shielding/signal strength over distance/whatever. But it should be relatively simple to figure out what 90%+ of people need from all of these cabes (essentially data bandwidth and power to charge our devices), determine how many wires it takes to do it, then go about making a single connector to support all of the existing protocols. If a certain use requires fewer wires, then the cable could be simpler and some wires disabled (which I believe already happens e.g. with USB3), but the connector would still be the same.

 

[Kevin G]

Statistical[/url]":28y35a5s]

Indeed, Thunderbolt 3 is quickly becoming the standard connection on laptops, acting as a "superset" host for USB 3.1 (at full 10Gbps speed), DisplayPort 1.3, PCI Express Gen 3 (enabling external graphics card docks like the Razer Core)

I don't believe this is correct. TB3 only support DP 1.2 not DP 1.3. Still even DP 1.2 supports 4K @ 60 Hz which is a hell of a lot more useful than HDMI 1.4b.
[...]
usb (protocol not the physical port) simply lacks the bandwidth for 4K at higher frame rates. It would be nice if in the future all "usb-c" ports were TB3 ports (a superset of usb 3).

You are correct that TB3 does not support DP 1.3. This is due to the controller only accepting two DP 1.2 inputs to encapsulate. This limits resolution to display to 4K@60. The interesting thing is that there is enough bandwidth to drive two of those displays.

If there is was a TB3 demux to the two independent DP 1.2 streams, then 5K would be possible on displays like Dell's UP2715 which are driven by two DP 1.2 ports. I have not heard of such a device.

In all likelihood, TB4 will be out next year as part of the CannonLake platform when Intel adopts DP 1.3 I wouldn't expect an increase in bandwidth but rather a protocol revision to natively support DP 1.3 and Display Stream Compression (DSC).

 

[tpl]

Having finally got all my displays including my TV up to HDMI and all my PCs except the raspberry PIs up to USB3. My Ethernet up to 1Gbs and my WiFi up to ac surely I don't need to upgrade it all for a decade or so...please.

Posters above talk about getting it all to be one standard. OK Why not a optical link with multi terabit capability and be done with it forever.

 

[Decoherent]

This is already fast enough for virtually all use cases, and fiber is delicate, expensive (on the ends), and difficult to transmit power over

 

[Carewolf]

Thunderbolt 3 is quickly becoming the standard connection on laptops, acting as a "superset" host for USB 3.1 (at full 10Gbps speed), DisplayPort 1.3, PCI Express Gen 3 (enabling external graphics card docks like the Razer Core) and the Thunderbolt standard.

Nonsense, it is a subset. It only supports USB 3.0 (5Gbit) and DisplayPort 1.2, in theory they could improve that later, but that is the case now. The upcoming laptops with Kaby Lake should finally be able to do USB 3.1(10Gbit) over the port, but still no DisplayPort 1.3.

 

[Statistical]

Carewolf[/url]":3p5cce63]

Thunderbolt 3 is quickly becoming the standard connection on laptops, acting as a "superset" host for USB 3.1 (at full 10Gbps speed), DisplayPort 1.3, PCI Express Gen 3 (enabling external graphics card docks like the Razer Core) and the Thunderbolt standard.

Nonsense, it is a subset. It only supports USB 3.0 (5Gbit) and DisplayPort 1.2, in theory they could improve that later, but that is the case now.

Every TB3 controller supports USB 3.1 Gen2 (10 Gbit). In fact a good way to guarantee you have 10Gbps is to get TB3 and without TB3, Usb 3.1 Gen2 support is hit or miss.

Note: the term USB 3 has been replaced with USB 3.1 Gen 1 (yay USB w/ clear names). So there is USB 3.1 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) and USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10 Gbps).

 

[yticolev]

How exactly does this avoid the expense of a dongle? Don't you now have to buy a special HDMI cable terminated by a USB-C connection? And another one for micro-HDMI?

 

[Statistical]

yticolev[/url]":35m4hd9b]How exactly does this avoid the expense of a dongle? Don't you now have to buy a special HDMI cable terminated by a USB-C connection? And another one for micro-HDMI?

Yes you need to buy a specific cable (usb-c on one end and hdmi on the other) but passive cables tend to be a lot cheaper than active converters.

 

[kella]

gbjbaanb[/url]":3s0fqogl]

adipose[/url]":3s0fqogl]As bad as it is, it's one more thing that can be supported over usb-c. That can only be a good thing. Now, make a serious networking standard over usb-c and we can be done.

Isn't ethernet support an option over HDMI, and so also over the type-C running HDMI signals? Or did they fudge that too?

Ah yes, it turns out it does support ethernet over HDMI over type-C cables using HEC.

Thunderbolt has a poorly-supported Ethernet implementation of its own - running at 10Gbps. HDMI Ethernet is only 100Mbps - slower than many WiFi networks. USB-C should be able to do at least Gigabit Ethernet at full duplex without using something as expensive as Thunderbolt.

But I don't see USB cables getting threaded through buildings - fiber is more likely to replace copper Ethernet in offices, and WiFi in homes. With laptops being built too small for Ethernet adapters to fit, they'll probably always be stuck with an active USB adapter.

 

[agt499]

obarthelemy[/url]":2u65oug6]The USB-C situation is gearing up to be a huge mess, with tens of possible features that can't be grokked w/o a manual. With my dear old dad able to cram an ethernet cable into a USB-A socket, I can't wait for him to explode something by plugging USB-C power into... some other USB-C socket. Or the opposite. Or both.

I'm not gonna be anyone's dear old dad anytime soon, but even if I just get to the old part, how does anyone know what works?
Seriously, I buy this new USB-C to HDMI cable - can I use it with my phone, my tablet, my macbook?
Even if we fast-forward some years to when some devices support it, what actually occurs when (not if) I plug it into a non-compliant device? Are the messages/behaviour for "This device doesn't have this port type" any different from "This device is fine, but you need to press META+P to bring up the windows 12 Projector Dialog"?

Another question aside of being grumpy about the protocol-support-lottery: Is powering the host device in any of these alt-modes supported/implemented/standardised?
That is, if my phone/tablet/notebook has USB-C, can I rely on it being powered/charged when I plug it into a monitor/tv/receiver/dock, or is this dependent on the dongle I just ditched?

 

[Deleted member 46272]

Statistical[/url]":1s4iatpy]

Carewolf[/url]":1s4iatpy]

Thunderbolt 3 is quickly becoming the standard connection on laptops, acting as a "superset" host for USB 3.1 (at full 10Gbps speed), DisplayPort 1.3, PCI Express Gen 3 (enabling external graphics card docks like the Razer Core) and the Thunderbolt standard.

Nonsense, it is a subset. It only supports USB 3.0 (5Gbit) and DisplayPort 1.2, in theory they could improve that later, but that is the case now.

Every TB3 controller supports USB 3.1 Gen2 (10 Gbit). In fact a good way to guarantee you have 10Gbps is to get TB3 and without TB3, Usb 3.1 Gen2 support is hit or miss.

Note: the term USB 3 has been replaced with USB 3.1 Gen 1 (yay USB w/ clear names). So there is USB 3.1 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) and USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10 Gbps).

USB 3 / USB C has turned into an incredible mess. Just look at compliant vs non compliant USB C cables and power adapters, and how many people have fried equipment with USB C chargers from Amazon. Trying to find a power adapter that supported USB C Fast Charging on Amazon was incredibly infuriating.

And then you have phones and tablets that may have a USB C port that only supports USB 2.0 speeds but, but may (or may not!) have some random set of USB 3 features. This is probably the messiest and most complicated interconnect spec out there, and it'll getting worse the more features get grafted onto it.

 

[steelgrass]

obarthelemy[/url]":2dhnff96]The USB-C situation is gearing up to be a huge mess, with tens of possible features that can't be grokked w/o a manual. With my dear old dad able to cram an ethernet cable into a USB-A socket, I can't wait for him to explode something by plugging USB-C power into... some other USB-C socket. Or the opposite. Or both.

Does anybody know how this works? Do you somehow have to tell the software you want to use the USB-C socket as Thunderbolt / Display Port / USB 3.1 / HDMI, or it is possible for the software to introspect the hardware so Plug n Play works? The latter sounds like it should be possible, as there is always a USB 2.0 connection available.

It you have to manually tell the software what you have plugged in then you are right - it really is going to be a mess.

 

[breze]

evan_s[/url]":ccwfemcu]

Statistical[/url]":ccwfemcu]

Indeed, Thunderbolt 3 is quickly becoming the standard connection on laptops, acting as a "superset" host for USB 3.1 (at full 10Gbps speed), DisplayPort 1.3, PCI Express Gen 3 (enabling external graphics card docks like the Razer Core)

I don't believe this is correct. TB3 only support DP 1.2 not DP 1.3. Still even DP 1.2 supports 4K @ 60 Hz which is a hell of a lot more useful than HDMI 1.4b.

...snip...

usb (protocol not the physical port) simply lacks the bandwidth for 4K at higher frame rates. It would be nice if in the future all "usb-c" ports were TB3 ports (a superset of usb 3).

The Alt mode on usb-c ports is fundamentally very simple. It simply uses software control switches (muxes) to connect the pins on the USB type c port to something other than the USB controller. As it stands there are at least 5 different ways you can have USB to some sort of video port cable/adapter and it is almost impossible to build a single port that would work with all the cables.

1. USB to X adapter that is just a USB device. They exist for usb 2 and no reason why one couldn't be done with USB 2 or 3 with a type c connector.
2. Display Port alt mode which supports up to v1.3. Can be a straight USB C to Display Port cable or use a Display Port to hdmi/vga/etc.
3. MHL alt mode. One expect this to be a USB C to HDMI cable but would actually require MHL support on both devices.
4. Thunderbolt alt mode. Supports thunderbolt 3 which includes Display Port v1.2.
5. HDMI alt mode. The latest alt mode. Should require no support on the HDMI end of the cable but the USB-C end requires hardware support to route the HDMI signal from some HDMI source to the correct pins on the USB-C port.
6. Alt mode is an open standard so others are possible but I can't think of any major current display standards that aren't already covered. A new display standard could be build and use alt mode tho.

This ends up making things confusing and a pain for consumers as the capability of the port is really unclear. The Power Delivery spec does the same for charging or powering devices via usb type c.

Making all usb C ports Thunderbolt ports is very unlikely because of the number of PCI-E lanes it would require and having to route the Display Port signal for the port(s). There is just no way to support these two things for the quantity of usb ports that your typical computer supports. Might be able to manage the 2-4 ports on a typical laptop but not the 12+ usb ports typical on a desktop.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_Type-C#Alternate_Mode

Hopefully some frickin' genius will figure out a way to get thunderbolt to support HDMI 2, to really keep people on their toes.

 

[whatwhy]

The HDMI 1.4b restriction is particularly puzzling given USB Type-C already supports DisplayPort 1.3 via DisplayPort Alt Mode. This supports 4K displays at 120Hz, 5K displays (5120×2880) at 60Hz, and even 8K displays (7680×4320) at 30Hz. However, Audio Return Channel (ARC), 3D, HDMI Ethernet Channel (HEC), Consumer Electronic Control (CEC), Deep Color, x.v.Color, and HDCP 2.2 are all supported via HDMI Alt Mode.

HDMI 2.0b support 4k@60Hz w/30bits of color per pixel and Rec 2020... Enough for the new 4k blu-ray specs at movie viewing rates.

DP 1.3/1.4 only have enough bandwidth for 4k@90Hz w/30bits color per pixel.

Most of those resolutions the author listed are with the compressed streams feature in DP. They are not raw pixels. 4k@120 is real if you stick with 8 bit/color. Just not enough raw bandwidth.

There is going to have to be some port spec changes for gamers to get 4k@120 for yet to be released "real" 4k gaming displays that have not been released yet.

edit: meant to say this follows DP1.4 being no actual hardware change vs 1.3(just more compression,..).

 

[equals42]

evan_s[/url]":h9hoxfkd]

Statistical[/url]":h9hoxfkd]

Indeed, Thunderbolt 3 is quickly becoming the standard connection on laptops, acting as a "superset" host for USB 3.1 (at full 10Gbps speed), DisplayPort 1.3, PCI Express Gen 3 (enabling external graphics card docks like the Razer Core)

I don't believe this is correct. TB3 only support DP 1.2 not DP 1.3. Still even DP 1.2 supports 4K @ 60 Hz which is a hell of a lot more useful than HDMI 1.4b.

...snip...

usb (protocol not the physical port) simply lacks the bandwidth for 4K at higher frame rates. It would be nice if in the future all "usb-c" ports were TB3 ports (a superset of usb 3).

Snip...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_Type-C#Alternate_Mode

Hopefully some frickin' genius will figure out a way to get thunderbolt to support HDMI 2, to really keep people on their toes.

It already does. See the nice graphics posted by @Statistical above. HDMI 2, DP 1.2 are supported over TB3.

 

[adipose]

gbjbaanb[/url]":twnfh684]

adipose[/url]":twnfh684]As bad as it is, it's one more thing that can be supported over usb-c. That can only be a good thing. Now, make a serious networking standard over usb-c and we can be done.

Isn't ethernet support an option over HDMI, and so also over the type-C running HDMI signals? Or did they fudge that too?

Ah yes, it turns out it does support ethernet over HDMI over type-C cables using HEC.

gah...I didn't think of that. I think it's fair to say that isn't a serious standard @ 100mbps.

 

[BasP]

I am so fucking over that XKCD standards comic.

 

[erendorn]

Ostracus[/url]":nwlqj8em]

erendorn[/url]":nwlqj8em]

adipose[/url]":nwlqj8em]As bad as it is, it's one more thing that can be supported over usb-c. That can only be a good thing. Now, make a serious networking standard over usb-c and we can be done.

I'm waiting for the optical variant (and compatible routers), so that I can finally run 10+Gbps lan at home

For $800+ you can have a 10+ Gbps lan.

And 300+$ for each pcie adapter... so yeah, I'm still waiting

 

[Jo King]

Statistical[/url]":l6jhhqns]

yticolev[/url]":l6jhhqns]How exactly does this avoid the expense of a dongle? Don't you now have to buy a special HDMI cable terminated by a USB-C connection? And another one for micro-HDMI?

Yes you need to buy a specific cable (usb-c on one end and hdmi on the other) but passive cables tend to be a lot cheaper than active converters.

The USB-C to HDMI Alternate Mode cable will require electronics inside, just like any other Alt-Mode adapter. The reason for this is because the discovery process between the USB-C Host/HDMI Source and the USB-C to HDMI cable uses the USB Power Delivery Protocol.

The electronics in the USB-C to HDMI cable will need to tell the Host that it supports HDMI Alternate Mode, and in the case where the Host doesn't support HDMI, the cable will need to present a USB fall-back mode known as "Billboard" ; Billboard is seen by the Host as USB 2.0 device, and explains why the connection didn't work.

I don't think think HDMI Alternate Mode will get much traction. It will have little to no support in the x86 (Intel/AMD) ecosystem, since both already offer DisplayPort Alternate Mode which is superior in just about every way. Since HDMI is not packetized like DisplayPort, you can't simultaneously support HDMI Alternate Mode and SuperSpeed USB, making this a strictly video + USB 2.0 + charging solution. New ARM SoC's are starting to offer DisplayPort as well, so perhaps the only place where this Alternate Mode makes sense is for makers of cheap phones and tablets that use older SoC's that don't have DisplayPort.

Many of the issues with USB-C aren't with the spec itself but rather incompetent implementations (bad cables), or companies deploying USB-C where it isn't beneficial. USB-C is a compact, single cable connector interface that can support simultaneous Data, Video, and Power. Its primary value is granting rich connectivity to portable/mobile devices, not replacing dedicated video or power connectors.

 

[Franc kaos]

daemonios[/url]":rvcb80u9]
On the bright side, proprietary smartphone connectors are all but dead. That's progress, I guess.

Unless you plug the wrong USB C cable into your phone and fry the innards. How do you know it's the wrong type? you don't, until it does.

 

[infected]

obarthelemy[/url]":2vn2tb4n]The USB-C situation is gearing up to be a huge mess, with tens of possible features that can't be grokked w/o a manual. With my dear old dad able to cram an ethernet cable into a USB-A socket, I can't wait for him to explode something by plugging USB-C power into... some other USB-C socket. Or the opposite. Or both.

I'm just glad modem/phone line ports aren't a thing anymore, sneaky little ethernet port lookalike buggers.