A Brief History
Universal Serial Bus (USB) was developed and invented by Ajay Bhatt while working for Intel and is a specification to establish communication between devices and a host controller (usually a PC). It was is intended to replace the many confusing varieties of serial and parallel ports.
USB can not only connect computer peripherals such as mice, keyboards, digital cameras, printers, personal media players, flash drives, and external hard drives – it can also power them! For many of those devices USB has become the industry standard connection method.
Although it was originally designed for personal computers, it has become commonplace on other devices such as smartphones, PDAs and video game consoles. As of 2008 about 2 billion USB devices are being sold per year, and approximately 6 billion total sold to date!!!
Standard connectors? Not always…
Despite its original simplicity many companies have adapted their own proprietary connectors, so not all your devices will use the standard formats. Therefore we recommend you keep your original cables in a safe place. Here are some images showing the standard connections:
Supported Operating Systems
Windows 98 was the first OS to support USB connections right out of the box. Since then, virtually every OS on the market is USB enabled. Support for Windows 95 has since been added and third party solutions have been created for support in NT 4.0.
Data Transfer Rates
- Low or Normal Speed 1.5Mbps
- Full Speed 12Mbps
- High Speed 480Mbps (USB 2.0)
- Super Speed 4800Mbps (USB 3.0)
Note: Not all USB 2.0 devices are certified for High Speed transfer rates. Look for the USB High Speed Logo to ensure maximum capacity.
Did you know…?
Up to 127 devices can be added and controlled by a single USB port and your devices can be up to 30 meters away from the controlling computer system!!!
