Difference between revisions of "Universal Serial Bus"
(Not exhaustive, but that would take a book) |
(No difference)
|
Latest revision as of 15:16, 21 September 2025
The Universal Serial Bus (generally given as the acronym, USB) is a now near-universal peripheral interface standard, instantiated as a general-capability bus (serial in nature, as the name implies). In addition to carrying data, it can also be used to supply small amounts of electric power, thus avoiding the need to have a separate power supply in/for the attached device.
The standard includes connectors (although they came in multiple sizes), as well as the electrical definition of the bus. It was introduced in 1996, and has been upgraded in an backward compatible way since then - although the connectors in the latest revision are not backward compatible, as older ones were.
The USB protocol includes a way of identifying the type of device which is attached. The standard also provides means for multiple devices to be attached to a single upstream (host) port. USB devices can generally be plugged in while they are powered on.
