A Guide to USB Connectors
The USB has come a long way since its establishment in 1995 with its main purpose being to ease the way consumers controlled peripherals and transferred data. Before the development of the USB, the main interfaces used were the parallel and serial connector that used different protocols to transfer data and control peripherals. These connectors were often cumbersome and required lining up several pins to fit the holes in the female end connectors. They also comparatively provided slower transfer rates that the USB connector.
USB stands for Universal Serial Bus. The USB connectors are mainly used to connect different kinds of USB cables with all standard compatible USB port. Primarily, USB cables are used for data transfer. The data transfer speeds may vary from 12Mbps in version 1.1 and up to 480 Mbps in version 2.0. The USB ports are also used to connect several computer accessories by substituting their particular cables with the USB connectors.
How It Works
USB devices use low to medium bandwidths, and they can be plugged in and remove even with the system running. Whenever the system enters the power saving mode, the USB device is automatically put into the sleeping mode. Once the system has been powered on, it enquires all the devices and allocates an address for the devices connected. The computer then finds out from each device the type of data transfer that it needs to perform. When removing the USB, you do not need to reboot or switch off the system.
The universal service bus offers a simple standard way of connecting up to 127 devices to the computer. The USB connector is generally found at the back of your machine, but in some machines it can be found at the front as well. As soon as you plug in, the operating system will automatically search and detect the new device. If you are in possession of the driver disk, be sure to enter it when the system asks for it. If the device was previously installed, the system starts communicating with it immediately. USB devices have their in-built cables and have a type “A” connection. In the absence of the inbuilt cable, the device accepts a USB “B” connector. The type “A” connectors head upstream while the “B” connectors head downstream and link to devices. The standard USB uses the “A” and “B” connectors to avoid any controversy.
The USB has replaced many interfaces that have been used in the past like the parallel and the serial ports as well as the individual power chargers for portable devices. USB connectors are now commonly used with devices like network adapters and portable media players as well as video game consoles and smartphones.
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