Vineet Tiwari

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
Cable is thinner
Has 4 primary conductors
Half duplex data transfer mode
USB 3.0
Cable resembles an Ethernet
cord by thickness
Has 8 primary 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
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 signaling
unidirectional data flow with negotiated directional bus separate from USB 2.0 signaling;
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, Multi-level link power management
device–level power management supporting idle, sleep, and suspend states

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)
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
THANK YOU