2002 USB UPDATE
The connector is 4 pins. USB is peripheral bus standard developed by PC and telecom industry leaders -- Compaq, DEC, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, NEC and Northern Telecom -- that will bring plug and play of computer peripherals outside the box, eliminating the need install cards into dedicated computer slots and reconfigure the system. Personal computers equipped with USB will allow computer peripherals to be automatically configured as soon as they are physically attached - without the need to reboot or run setup. USB will also allow multiple devices -- up to 127 -- to run simultaneously on a computer, with peripherals such as monitors and keyboards acting as additional plug-in sites, or hubs.
You name it: monitors controls, audio IO devices, telephones, modems, keyboards, mice, 4x and 6x CD ROM drives, joysticks, tape and floppy drives, imaging devices such as scanners and printers. USB's 12 megabit/s data rate will also accommodate a whole new generation of peripherals, including MPEG-2 video-based products, data gloves and digitizers. Also, since computer-telephony integration is expected to be a big growth area for PCs, USB will provide a low-cost interface for Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) and digital PBXs
Drawing its intelligence from the host PC, USB will detect when devices are added and removed. The bus automatically determines what host resource, including driver software and bus bandwidth, each peripheral needs and makes those resources available without user intervention. Users with a USB-equipped PC will be able to switch out compatible peripherals as needed easily as they would plug in a lamp.
The Windows operat ing system(since OSR 2.1 release on October 29, 1996) comes already equipped with the feature (called "drivers") that allows your PC to recognize USB peripherals. Ultimately, you will not need to purchase or install additional software for each new peripheral. However, new peripheral products (including those never-before-seen) may mean a gap between the peripheral availability and software upgrades. This may mean you receive a diskette with your new USB peripheral with the updated driver information.
USB peripherals will be competitively priced with the peripherals available on the market today.
Yes. Almost all new PC designs from major vendors shipping today have USB connections on the motherboard and the correct Win OS to make them work. There are also many products used to design and build USB systems, such as connectors, chipsets and board-level computers. USB peripherals, including keyboards, monitors, mice and joysticks, are slowly starting to appear Q1 1997.
They differ most in terms of application focus, availability and price. The USB feature is available now and will address more traditional PC connections, like keyboards, mice, joysticks and handheld scanners. However, USB's data rate (12 Mb/s)is more than adequate for many consumer applications including more-advanced computer game devices, high-fidelity audio and highly-compressed video, like MPEG-1 and MPEG-2. Most importantly, the USB feature will add nothing to system cost.
FireWire will only be available in low volume until late 1997. FireWire will target high-bandwidth consumer electronics connections to the PC -- like digital camcorders, cameras and digital video disc players.
No. The two technologies target different peripheral connections and will therefore be complementary. When FireWire becomes more prevalent, in about two years, it will be up to individual consumers what features they want on their new PCs. It seems likely that, in the future, PCs will have both USB and FireWire connection ports.
USB was developed by a group of seven companies that saw a need for an interconnect to enable the growth of the blossoming Computer Telephony Integration Industry. The seven promoters of the USB definition are; Compaq, Digital Equipment Corp, IBM PC Co., Intel, Microsoft, NEC and Northern Telecom.
Legacy support is not a USB spec issue. There is a class document being developed that addresses the legacy questions. It is available now in a 0.9 revision from our class document download section..
Yes, dynamic configuration and initialization by the OS includes automaticlly loading and unloading the drivers as needed.
No, USB was designed for a desktop peripheral interface and has a performance/cost point for todays peripherals. A new interface, such as P1394, for future high speed peripherals may develop.
The viability depends on the definition of acceptable performance point. If any of these devices are for frequent use then I would want a permanent installation both for performance and mechanical integration. USB is not intended to be an inside the box permanent connection for high speed peripherals. If the use is occasional or is for a peripheral that is shared between many computers, I would think that USB performance would be more than sufficient. The convenience of USB and the ubiquitous connection that USB will bring would outweigh blazing transfer rates. Still, USB will provide CD transfer rates up to 4x or 6x drives(not enough for rewritable drives) and better transfer rates than the typical LPT CONNECTED tape drive, floppy drive or removable hard disk.
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