Universal Serial Bus

In 1995, Compaq, Digital, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, NEC, and Northern Telecom, determined to design a better interface, pooled their efforts and laid the groundwork for the Universal Serial Bus, better known as USB. Later that year, they started the Universal Serial Bus Implementers Forum and in 1996 unveiled the new interface to the world. The world yawned.

Aimed at replacing both legacy serial and parallel port designs, the USB design corrected all three of their shortcomings. To improve performance, they designed USB with a 12Mbps data rate (with an alternative low-speed signaling rate of 1.5Mbps). To eliminate wiring hassles and worries about connector gender, crossover cables, and device types, they developed a strict wiring ...

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