Know Your USB: A Practical Guide to the Universal Serial Bus

11 Oct.,2022

 

High Speed USB

HDMI connections

The Universal Serial Bus has come a long way as a technology; it is now a standard in today’s electronics and gadgets for work and play.

Computers and peripherals interact through USB ports. As you can see here, legacy serial and parallel ports once dominated the scene. Under this setup, a keyboard, mouse, external monitor, printer, and all other PC accessories have a corresponding custom port to communicate with the computer.

There were, however, problems with the usage of such legacy computer ports. For starters, peripherals might have been incompatible with the ports available. Data transfer also lagged with mere kilobytes per second although, between parallel and serial ports, parallel ports boasted faster transmission speed. Not all computer ports could run at once when in use under this scenario.

USB came along in the 1990s and changed computers and devices forever. There’s the standardization of ports replacing some, if not all, old computer sockets with a uniform one with supported cables and connectors. Data storage, transmission, and portability have also received a boost from USB.

Surely, you want to brush up on your knowledge about USB, the nitty-gritty of this handy, everyday technology from its history to terminology. And because electronics that use USB run aplenty, learning more about the versions, types, and solutions is indispensable. This technology is evolving to respond to ever-changing times, and you are on the right page.

WHAT DOES A USB DO?

From a then-struggling standard, USB has lived up to the universal in its name as millions, if not billions, of devices have adopted it.

What’s in it for you?

  • Point of communication, plug and play. USB’s primary purpose is to connect devices to computers. This ease of use is evident in hot swapping such that you can insert a peripheral into a USB port or remove it, for that matter, without turning off the computer or tweaking some settings.
  • Data transfer. The speed of transferring data between devices is the strongest suit of USB, whose theoretical transmission rate can reach up to 40 Gigabits per second. USB data-transfer rates are Low Speed, Full Speed, High Speed, SuperSpeed, and SuperSpeed+.
  • Data storage. Wireless file-sharing technologies may have become the norm, but USB flash drives are still everywhere because they remain reliable and portable. These devices store with a memory capacity designed to accommodate movies, songs, and other large files.
  • Battery charging. USB enables you to charge your phone and any portable device with batteries to your computer or wall outlet. The standardized USB connector ensures you can plug your device into a compatible port found on your laptop.

What’s more, USB-C can now charge laptops (your laptop’s USB-C port must support charging) and, if coupled with Power Delivery (PD), can offer faster charging times.

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