Darrel Cross

Jeff Singer
Sabrina Thornton
What is USB?
USB stands for Universal Serial Bus
Provides an expandable, fast, bi-directional, low
cost, hot pluggable Plug and Play serial hardware
interface
Allows users to connect a wide variety of
peripherals to a computer and have them
automatically configured and ready to use
Implemented to provide a replacement for legacy
ports to make the addition of peripheral devices
quick and easy for the end user
History of USB
Developed and standardized by a group of
leading companies from the computer and
electronics industries in 1995
USB specifications were developed by Compaq,
DEC, IBM, Intel , Microsoft, and NEC, joined later
by HP, Lucent, and Phillips
These companies formed the USB Implementers
Forum as a non-profit to publish specifications
and provide a support organization and forum
for the advancement and adoption of USB
technology
History of USB
There have been three versions released prior
to 3.0
USB 1.0 in January 1996 – data rates of 1.5 Mbps
and 12 Mbps
USB 1.1 in September 1998 – first widely used
version of USB
USB 2.0 in April 2000
 Major feature revision was the addition of a high
speed transfer rate of 480 Mbps
Important note – all versions are backwards
compatible with previous versions of USB
Key Features
Single connector type
Replaces all different legacy connectors with one well-
defined standardized USB connector for all USB
peripheral devices
Hot swappable
Devices can be safely plugged and unplugged as
needed while the computer is running (no need to
reboot)
Plug and Play
OS software automatically identifies, configures, and
loads the appropriate driver when connection is made
Key Features
High performance
USB offers data transfer speeds at up to 480 Mbps
Expandability
Up to 127 different peripheral devices may
theoretically be connected to a single bus at one time
Bus-supplied power
USB distributes the power to all connected devices,
eliminating the need for an external power source for
low power devices (flash drives, memory cards,
Bluetooth)
Key Features
Easy to use
The single standard connector type simplifies
the end user’s task of figuring out what plug
goes into what socket
Automatic driver loading does all the work for
the end user
Low cost
The host handles most of the protocol
complexity, making the design simple and
having a low cost
USB Now
The next generation of USB hardware and
specifications is USB 3.0
Version was announced by Pat Gelsinger at the
Intel Developer Forum in September 2007
USB 3.0 Promoter Group announced in November
2008 that version 1.0 has been completed
Now transitioning to the USB Implementers
Forum, which essentially means it opens the
specifications for hardware developers for
implementation in future products
USB 3.0
Upgrade from USB 2.0
Backwards compatible
Nicknamed SuperSpeed USB because of the
significant speed improvements over existing
USB specifications
New communication protocols for devices
New transfer modes
New power management features
Longer maximum cable lengths
Similar to PCI Express 2.0 technology
Why the upgrade?
Mainly the need for faster transfer rates in
devices such as hard drives, flash card
readers, and DVD, Blu-ray, and HD DVD
optical drives
User applications demanding a higher
performance connection between the PC and
peripherals
Need for greater energy efficiency in today’s
“greener world”
USB 2.0 vs. USB 3.0 –
Hardware
USB 2.0 USB 3.0
Cable is thinner Cable resembles an
Has 4 primary Ethernet cord by
conductors thickness
Half duplex data transfer Has 8 primary
mode conductors
 Three twisted signal
pairs for data paths and
one power pair
 Full duplex data transfer
mode
USB 2.0 vs. USB 3.0
USB 2.0 vs. USB 3.0
USB 2.0 vs. USB 3.0
A side note on the USB 3.0 cable:
Even though the USB 3.0 specifications are
designed for backwards compatibility with USB
2.0, the USB 3.0 cables are not compatible with
the regular USB 2.0 connector
 USB 2.0 vs. USB 3.0
Proposed plug and receptacle compatibility
Receptacle Plugs accepted
USB 2.0 Standard- USB 2.0 Standard-A or USB 3.0 Standard-A
A
USB 3.0 Standard- USB 3.0 Standard-A or USB 2.0 Standard-A
A
USB 2.0 Standard- USB 2.0 Standard-B
B
USB 3.0 Standard- USB 3.0 Standard- B or USB 2.0 Standard-B
B
USB 3.0 Powered-BUSB 3.0 Powered-B, USB 3.0 Standard-B, or USB 2.0
Standard-B
USB 2.0 Micro-B USB 2.0 Micro-B
USB 3.0 Micro-B USB 3.0 Micro-B or USB 2.0 Micro-B
Characteristic USB 2.0 USB 3.0
Data Rate Low-Speed (1.5 Mbps), Full-Speed (12 Mbps), SuperSpeed - about 5.0 Gbps
and High Speed (480 Mbps)
Data Interface Half-duplex two-wire differential signaling, Dual-simplex, four-wire differential
unidirectional data flow with negotiated signaling separate from USB 2.0
directional bus transitions signaling; simultaneous bi-directional
data flows (Full Duplex)
Cable Signal Count Two for low-speed/full-speed/high-speed data Six – four for SuperSpeed data path,
path two for non-SuperSpeed data path
Bus Transaction Host directed, polled traffic flow; packet traffic Host directed, asynchronous traffic
Protocol is broadcast to all devices flow; packet traffic is explicitly routed

Power Management Port-level suspend with two levels of entry/exit Multi-level link power management
latency, supporting idle, sleep, and suspend
device–level power management states
Bus Power Support for low/high bus-powered devices with Same as USB 2.0 with a 50% increase
lower power limits for un-configured and for un-configured power and 80%
suspended devices increase for configured power, about
900 milliamps
Port State Port hardware detects connect events; systemPort hardware detects connect events
software uses port commands to transition the and brings the port into operational
port into an enable state (i.e., can do USB data state ready for SuperSpeed data
USB 3.0 vs. Other
Standards
FireWire 800 has a maximum data transfer
rate of 800 Mbps
eSATA bus a a maximum data transfer rate of
3.2 Gbps
Example:
Intel demonstrated transfer of a 25 GB HD
movie in 70 seconds using a USB 3.0 bus versus
the USB 2.0 transfer time of about 4 hours
Sources
http://www.usblyzer.com/brief-usb-overview-and-history.htm
http://arstechnica.com/old/content/2007/09/intel-announces-
demonstrates-usb-3-0.ars
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-262047.html
http://arstechnica.com/hardware/news/2008/11/usb-3-0-specification-
finalized-devices-in-2010.ars
http://www.usb.org
http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20090310/166949/
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/01/09/ces_usb_3_revealed/
http://arstechnica.com/old/content/2007/09/intel-announces-
demonstrates-usb-3-0.ars
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usb
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-9780794-1.html
http://thefutureofthings.com/news/5739/25gb-in-70-seconds-with-
usb-3-0.html
http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/20080813corp.htm