Setting the industry standard
Intel® Universal Serial Bus (USB) is a set of connectivity specifications developed in collaboration with industry leaders. Originally released in 1995 at just 12 megabits per second (Mbps), USB allows easy, high-speed connections of peripherals to PCs that, once plugged in, configure automatically.
Today, with a run rate of 3 billion USB products shipped into the growing market every year, USB operates at up to five gigabits per second (Gbps) and is found in over ten billion PCs, consumer electronics, and mobile devices.
USB is the most successful interconnect in the history of personal computing, and has migrated into consumer electronics (CE) and mobile products, creating an ease of use that was previously unheard of.
USB today
Today, SuperSpeed USB 3.0 provides the highest standard in USB performance—up to 10 times faster than High-Speed USB 2.0, with a design data rate of five Gbps. In addition, SuperSpeed USB dramatically reduces the power necessary to transfer large amounts of data.
This latest version of USB retains full backward compatibility with previous generations, so existing platforms and devices will plug-and-play equally well with newer platforms and devices that support SuperSpeed USB.
Portable devices such as handhelds, cell phones, and digital cameras that connect to PCs as USB peripherals benefit from having additional capabilities to connect to other USB devices directly using USB On-The-Go (OTG) technology.
Industry collaboration
Intel formed the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) in 1995 as a non-profit corporation with other industry players to support and accelerate the adoption of USB-compliant peripherals.
Today, the USB-IF has over 700 member companies worldwide and its board of directors includes representatives from:
- Hewlett-Packard
- Intel Corporation
- LSI Corporation
- Microsoft Corporation
- Renesas Electronics Corporation
- ST-Ericsson
The forum facilitates the development of high-quality compatible USB peripherals, and promotes the benefits of USB products that have passed compliance testing.
Wireless USB
Wireless USB is the wireless extension to USB that combines the speed and security of wired technology with the portability and clutter-free convenience of wireless technology. This wireless connectivity has enabled a convenient mobile lifestyle for mobile computing users.
Supporting robust high-speed wireless connectivity, wireless USB utilizes the common WiMedia* Ultra-Wideband (UWB) radio platform developed by the WiMedia Alliance.
USB in the future
When the SuperSpeed USB architecture was originally developed, requirements for future performance increases were factored into the solution.
While it is still to be determined what new applications or uses will drive the need for higher levels of performance, a future version of SuperSpeed USB could support many tens of Gbps, and could even be adapted to optical signaling.
