Initially, USB 2.0 used the same Standard-A to Standard-B connector and port types as USB1.1 did. Similarly if you plug a USB 2.0 device into a USB 1.1 port, it will be limited to USB 1.1 speeds. The only drawback is that the data rate is limited to the USB 1.1 maximum – which again is only 1.5 Megabytes per second. This increase in speed made the specification suitable for use with external hard drives and other types of data storage devices for the first time.Īdditionally, USB 2.0 (pictured above) is backward compatible with the USB 1.1 standard, meaning if you have the appropriate connectors, you can plug USB 1.1 devices into USB 2.0 ports on your computer or hub and the device will work normally. In practice, maximum data rates closer to 320Mbps (or 40 Megabytes per second) are more common. Its primary advantage over USB 1.1 is that it specifies a maximum theoretical data rate of 480Mbps, or approximately 60 Megabytes per second. USB 2.0 (Hi-Speed USB) was released as a specification in the spring of 2000. Generally the Standard-B connector (which has a square-like shape) would connect to the back of the USB device, and the Standard-A connector (which has a flat rectangular shape) would connect to the computer’s USB port. The standard USB cable at the time (which is still commonly used) is the Standard-A to Standard-B cable. Things like PS/2, (PC) serial, parallel, and Apple Desktop Bus (or ADB) ports were all replaced by a single USB standard, with a single port and cable setup. While that’s not much by today’s standards, the main benefit of the new USB standard was that it allowed device and computer manufacturers to replace a wide array of port and connector types that were showing their age at the time. The USB 1.1 specification has a maximum data rate of 12 megabits per second (or 12Mbps), or approximately 1.5 Megabytes (MB) per second.
USB specifications is to imagine each of the physical connectors/ports as a pipe and the USB specification as the protocol that describes how the pipe carries data and power. Of course, you might be asking, “What exactly is a USB specification?” One simple way to think of USB connectors/ports vs. Released in 1998, USB 1.1 (Full-Speed USB) was the earliest variant of the USB specification that was widely adopted by the computing industry. Gen 2 (we will explain more later), but first we’ll give some background on the earlier specifications and hardware to help you understand the history, and the benefits and limitations of the various USB technologies. Much of the confusion has been caused by more recent USB advances such as USB 3.1 Gen 1 vs. However, the USB Implementers Forum has created new specifications that while ultimately beneficial, have caused some confusion. Until recently, it was a fairly simple task to make sense of the different USB specifications and the most commonly used connector types.
The USB (or Universal Serial Bus) connection type has been around for almost two decades.