[1] : The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03)

universal serial bus
     
         usb an external peripheral interface
        standard for communication between a computer and external
        peripherals over an inexpensive cable using biserial
        transmission.
     
        usb is intended to replace existing serial ports, parallel
        ports, keyboard, and monitor connectors and be used with
        keyboards, mice, monitors, printers, and possibly some
        low-speed scanners and removable hard drives.  for faster
        devices existing ide, scsi, or emerging fc-al or
        firewire interfaces can be used.
     
        usb works at 12 mbps with specific consideration for low cost
        peripherals.  it supports up to 127 devices and both
        isochronous and asynchronous data transfers.  cables can
        be up to five metres long and it includes built-in power
        distribution for low power devices.  it supports daisy
        chaining through a tiered star multidrop topology.  a usb
        cable has a rectangular "type a" plug at the computer end and
        a square "type b" plug at the peripheral end.
     
        before march 1996 intel started to integrate the necessary
        logic into pc chip sets and encourage other manufacturers
        to do likewise.  it was widely available by 1997.  later
        versions of windows 95 included support for it.  it was
        standard on macintosh computers in 1999.
     
        usb 2.0 is a much faster enhanced version.
     
        usb.org http://www.usb.org/.
     
        2002-01-01
     
     
see also:
peripheral standard peripherals biserial serial ports parallel ports 
keyboard monitor keyboards mice monitors 
printers scanners hard drives ide scsi 
fc-al firewire isochronous asynchronous daisy chaining 
pc chip sets windows 95 macintosh usb 2.0 
lt;usb.orggt; 

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