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 Ethernet
Has 4 primary conductors cord by thickness
Half duplex data transfer Has 8 primary conductors
mode  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-A USB 2.0 Standard-A or USB 3.0 Standard-A

USB 3.0 Standard-A USB 3.0 Standard-A or USB 2.0 Standard-A

USB 2.0 Standard-B USB 2.0 Standard-B

USB 3.0 Standard-B USB 3.0 Standard- B or USB 2.0 Standard-B

USB 3.0 Powered-B USB 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
USB 2.0 Micro-AB USB 2.0 Micro-B or USB 2.0 Micro-A
USB 3.0 Micro-AB USB 3.0 Micro-B, USB 3.0 Micro-A, USB 2.0 Micro-B, or USB 2.0
Micro-A
Characteristic USB 2.0 USB 3.0
Data Rate Low-Speed (1.5 Mbps), Full-Speed (12 Mbps), and SuperSpeed - about 5.0 Gbps
High Speed (480 Mbps)

Data Interface Half-duplex two-wire differential signaling, Dual-simplex, four-wire differential

unidirectional data flow with negotiated directional signaling separate from USB 2.0 signaling;
bus transitions simultaneous bi-directional data flows
(Full Duplex)
Cable Signal Count Two for low-speed/full-speed/high-speed data path Six – four for SuperSpeed data path, two
for non-SuperSpeed data path
Bus Transaction Protocol Host directed, polled traffic flow; packet traffic is Host directed, asynchronous traffic flow;
broadcast to all devices packet traffic is explicitly routed

Power Management Port-level suspend with two levels of entry/exit
latency,
device–level power management
Bus Power Support for low/high bus-powered devices with
lower power limits for un-configured and
suspended devices
Port State Port hardware detects connect events; system
software uses port commands to transition the port
into an enable state (i.e., can do USB data
communications flows)
Multi-level link power management
supporting idle, sleep, and suspend states
Same as USB 2.0 with a 50% increase for
un-configured power and 80% increase for
configured power, about 900 milliamps
Port hardware detects connect events and
brings the port into operational state ready
for SuperSpeed data communications
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