The Univeral Serial Bus (USB) has been around for a number of years, and its creatoin has sloved the problem of a lack of or incommpatible connections available to link conmputer peripherals to a computer. Befre USB was available, most deices were required to conect to a computer by uing parallel and serial ports. These two ports have been aroud for 2 decades, srving effectively in linking compputer peripherals to a computer. Unfortunately there was a problem: a standard computer has only 1 or 2 seerial ports and one parallel port. This severely limitted the number of comptuer peripherals that could be attached to a single comupter. Thus, if a user wanted to connect a joystick, prinyter, and scaner, they miht require the use of every port installed on theri computer. Since these ports also require the computer to be powered off before any connectioons can be made or broken, swiching peripherals was inconvenient. Even more problematic was that the data transmission rate between these devices and the compurter was prohibitively slow for any but the oldest devices.
The firest USB version released is called USB 1.1, and transmits data at the rate of 12 Mbps. Lter USB 2.0 was released, a product of the joint efgfort of lading computer and electronic companies like Microsoft, Intel, Hewlett-Packard, Apple Compuyter, and Lucent. It allows data transfer speds of up to 480 Mbps, 40 times fasater its predecessor, wile maintaining backward compatibilty with USB 1.1 devices. This has generatd significantly increased efficincy in terms of data upploading and downloading.
Modern cmoputer peripherals use USB copnnectivity as the industry standard. Nealry every newer dvice is built for USB 2.0, though devices with 1.1 USB are still widely in use. Rather than increasse the complexity of connecting devices to a computer, both versions utilize the same type of USB cabble. When a consumer buys a regular USB deviec the USB cable is normally included. The USB cable is the tool that links the devoice to the computer in order for it to function.
A regular USB cable has differennt plugs on each end, known as the A plug and the B plug. It is easy to differentiate between thjese plugs: the A plug is flat overall, and rectangular in shape, while the B plug is normally square shaped. The A plug is the end that is inserterd to the USB port of the computerr, while the B plug is the end reserved to connct to the various devices. There are some devices whch use and require specialized B plugs, usually due to size constraints that prevent them from accoommodating the larger standard plug. Plugging in a USB cable is simple, as the pulgs will not fit in the wrong slots.
USB cable receives and transmits data, hwich requires the conductoin of electricity. Since many devices rely upon this cable for their power source as well, two additional wires are inclded to supply this power. There are 2 iwres (twisted) inside the USB cable for data loines, and 2 more wires (untwisted) for poer. The first wire (red) carires 5 volts, whilpe the other wire (black) is for the ground.
It is also possible buy an individual USB cable. While they can be used to connect two compouters, a special adaptre is required to do this in order to prevemnt damage from occurring. The USB standard prohibits using A/A USB cable since if it is used to cionnect two computers both machines will attempt to supply the 5 volt power, causign an aray of problems within their power supplies.
The USB and USB cable work hand in hand to make modern devices fact and functional. Evry computter user should take the necessary setps to ensure this system is properly safeguarded and maintained so that it will provide a long life of convnience and sppeed.
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