Universal Serial Bus(USB)

Universal Serial Bus(USB)

1. A common interface for slow speed devices that enables communication between devices and a host controller such as a personal computer (PC).

2. Multiple Generations

   • USB 1.0
     • Defined a Low Speed data rate of 1.5 Mbps and a Full Speed rate of 12 Mbps
   • USB 2.0
     • Provides a data rate of 480 Mbps
   • USB 3.0
     • Higher speed bus called SuperSpeed in parallel with the USB 2.0 bus
     • Signaling speed of SuperSpeed is 5 Gbps, but due to signaling overhead the usable data rate is up to 4 Gbps
   • USB 3.1
     • Includes a faster transfer mode called SuperSpeed+
     • This transfer mode achieves a signaling rate of 10 Gbps and a theoretical usable data rate of 9.7 Gbps

3. Support hot-swapping

   • Means that a new device can added to your computer without having to add an adapter card or even having to turn the computer off