USB devices

USB devices

USB device Drivers

USB, short for Universal Serial Bus, is an industry standard that was developed to define cables, connectors and protocols for connection, communication, and power supply between personal computers and their peripheral devices.

USB was designed to standardize the connection of computer peripherals (including keyboards, pointing devices, digital cameras, printers, portable media players, disk drives and network adapters) to personal computers, both to communicate and to supply electric power. It has largely replaced interfaces such as serial ports and parallel ports, and has become commonplace on a wide range of devices. USB connectors have replaced other types for battery chargers of portable devices.

Released in 1996, the USB standard is currently maintained by the USB Implementers Forum (USB IF).

 

The Universal Serial Bus was developed to simplify and improve the interface between personal computers and peripheral devices, when compared with previously existing standard or ad-hoc proprietary interfaces.

From the computer user's perspective, the USB interface improved ease of use in several ways. The USB interface is self-configuring, so the user need not adjust settings on the device and interface for speed or data format, or configure interrupts, input/output addresses, or direct memory access channels.  USB connectors are standardized at the host, so any peripheral can use any available socket. USB takes full advantage of the additional processing power that can be economically put into peripheral devices so that they can manage themselves; USB devices often do not have user-adjustable interface settings. The USB interface is "hot pluggable", meaning devices can be exchanged without rebooting the host computer. Small devices can be powered directly from the USB interface, displacing extra power supply cables. Because use of the USB logos is only permitted after compliance testing, the user can have confidence that a USB device will work as expected without extensive interaction with settings and configuration; the USB interface defines protocols for recovery from common errors, improving reliability over previous interfaces.  Installation of a device relying on the USB standard requires minimal operator action. When a device is plugged into a port on a running personal computer system, it is either entirely automatically configured using existing device drivers, or the system prompts the user to locate a driver which is then installed and configured automatically.

For hardware manufacturers and software developers, the USB standard eliminates the requirement to develop proprietary interfaces to new peripherals. The wide range of transfer speeds available from a USB interface suits devices ranging from keyboards and mice up to streaming video interfaces. A USB interface can be designed to provide the best available latency for time-critical functions, or can be set up to do background transfers of bulk data with little impact on system resources. The USB interface is generalized with no signal lines dedicated to only one function of one device.

Limitations

USB cables are limited in length, as the standard was meant to connect to peripherals on the same table-top, not between rooms or between buildings. However, a USB port can be connected to a gateway that accesses distant devices. USB has a strict "tree" topology and "master-slave" protocol for addressing peripheral devices; peripheral devices cannot interact with one another except via the host, and two hosts cannot communicate over their USB ports directly. Some extension to this limitation is possible through USB On-The-Go. A host cannot "broadcast" signals to all peripherals at once, each must be addressed individually. Some very high speed peripheral devices require sustained speeds not available in the USB standard.  While converters exist between certain "legacy" interfaces and USB, they may not provide full implementation of the legacy hardware; for example, a USB to parallel port converter may work well with a printer, but not with a scanner that requires bi-directional use of the data pins.

For a product developer, use of USB requires implementation of a complex protocol and implies an "intelligent" controller in the peripheral device. Developers of USB devices intended for public sale generally must obtain a USB ID which requires a fee paid to the Implementers' Forum. Developers of products that use the USB specification must sign an agreement with Implementer's Forum. Use of the USB logos on the product require annual fees and membership in the organization.