subject: History of USB [print this page] History of USB History of USB
USB Stands for Universal Serial Bus. USB 1.0 specification was introduced in 1996. It was intended to make it easier to connect external devices to PCs by replacing the multitude of connectors at the back of PCs, and to simplify software configuration of all devices connected to USB It was also designed to permit greater bandwidth for external devices. The original USB 1.0 specification had a data transfer rate of 12 Mbits.
USB was created by a variety of multinationals.Intel produced the UHCI host controllerand open software stack; Microsoft produced a USB software stack for Windows and co-authored the OHCI host controller specification with National Semiconductorand Compaq; Philips produced early USB-Audio; and TIproduced the most widely used hub chips. One of the co-inventors of USB was Ajay Bhatt, who was later given credit in an Intel television advertisement, though this overstates Intel's role in the development of USB. Compaq and Microsoft played roles equal to Intel, and Microsoft in particular focused on improving the user experience and enabling hot Plug and Playof devices.
The more advanced and faster USB 2.0 specification was released in April 2000 and was standardized by the USB-IF at the end of 2001. Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Lucent(now Alcatel-Lucent following its merger with Alcatel in 2006), Microsoft, NEC, and Philips jointly led the initiative to develop a higher data transfer rate than the 1.0 specification (480 Mbit/s vs 12 Mbit/s).
USB 3.0 has recently been introduced. Watch this space for more information.
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