The term USB is short for Universal Serial Bus. A “bus” is a circuit connection used to transfer data or power between components in an electronic system. A “serial” bus transmits data one bit at a time over a single wire. USB is an engineering standard that establishes specifications for the connectors and cable used to link the various devices in an electronic system.
In a very simple sense, the USB standard allows for easy and convenient interconnect and data communication between devices. But it has evolved to do a great deal more. The development of the USB protocol and products associated with it was driven by the problem of interconnect complexity and slow data transfer inherent in computer systems of the early 1990s. The debut of the USB standard in 1996 simplified and streamlined the patchwork interconnect process. Since then, USB has been, quite literally, a story of speed bumps.
The refinement of the USB protocol and the products based on it spans a 25-year period and continues to evolve. The goal of the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), a consortium of more than 700 companies guiding the standard, has consistently been increased data communication speed, along with power delivery. The outcome has been broader adoption of computer technology across the business and computer markets based on easier device set-up and replacement.
Read the full blog, The History of USB Standards from 1.0 to USB4, on the Same Sky website.
