USB Drivers
The Universal Serial Bus (USB) subsystem provides connectivity services that allow the use of various peripheral devices, from printers to card readers, on your PC. The USB architecture isn't limited to one device per port. Since it's a bus, multiple components can be connected using an external hub, which splits a single USB into multiple ports. Thus, one port on a PC can be used to connect two, three, or even up to 127 discrete devices using hub technologies.
Another major advantage of USB is its use of smaller, easier to manage cabling. Traditional serial and parallel cables were often very bulky and difficult to manage. They obstructed access to the rear of a PC and were hard to route through office wiring channels. The exposed pins on these connectors were easy to bend or break, thus destroying the cable. USB cabling is much smaller in diameter and the connectors are very reliable. USB is a truly industry standard technology, and is managed jointly by Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Lucent (now Alcatel-Lucent), Microsoft, NEC, and Philips. USB was developed in the mid 1990s, and was created to address a basic shortcoming of the PC architecture. Early machines used standard serial and parallel ports to provide external device connectivity, but generally came with only one of each. Users who needed to connect multiple serial devices (for example a serial printer and external modem) had to buy and install a second internal serial port. Installing multiple parallel ports was similarly difficult. Both devices were also limited in application and flexibility. Some manufacturers developed, for instance, serial interfaces for cameras. However the transfer speeds were limited to the 115kb maximum inherent in the serial architecture. USB 2.0, the currently implemented standard, was released in 2000. It provides for up to 480 Mbit/s (60 MB/s) transfer speeds. It's also much more flexible than traditional serial devices and can support devices ranging from cameras and printers to disk drives and joysticks. USB 1.0 was far more limited in speed and flexibility, and generally is no longer used. A new standard, USB 3.0, is set for release around 2010. It will provide faster connectivity with a "super speed" rate of 4.8 Gbit/s (600 MB/s) as well as other enhancements. 3.0 will be backward compatible with 2.0, so older devices will continue to function when connected to newer host controllers. » Download USB Drivers |
Industry Awards
    |
downloaddrivers.net