USB high speed ports. 

Information about USB high speed ports.

What are USB high speed ports?

Stand for Universal Serial Bus, USB high speed ports architecture intent to provide solutions to the problem of connecting devices to computers.

When you have only one parallel port and two simple serial ports, it’s impossible to connect multiple devices at the same time into your computer. It is to replace these aging serial and parallel ports that the USB technology has been developed.

From this time many peripherals have been made in USB version. So are today many devices such as:

Cameras

Printers

Modems

Scanners

Keyboards

Mouse

Flash drive

Webcams

TV Tuners

Speakers

Joysticks

MP3 Players

Network connections

Then what are the benefits of using USB high speed ports?

The computer USB ports allow you to plug any device in any port even a different port each time. It’s also a “plug and play” technology known as “hot swappable”. It means you can connect and disconnect the devices at any time while the computer is on.

When you add USB ports to your computer, you create an easy way to connect up to 127 devices to your computer and only utilizing one IRQ. Another advantage of USB ports is the capability of operating at 1.5 megabits per second or, depending on the device, at 12 megabits per second.

The more interesting is that the latest operating systems are compatible to USB devices. So are the Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP, MacOS, Linux…

Types of USB ports

USB high speed ports come in two versions: USB1 also known as full-speed USB presented in two steps, the original USB 1.0 and USB 1.1. The USB1 version supports a rate of 12 megabits per second. Certain specifications and modifications differ the USB 1.0 from the USB 1.1

The second version, USB2, known as USB 2.0 or high-speed USB is 40 times faster than the first version. It is backwards compatible with original USB devices and is capable of supporting a transfer rate of 480 MB/s.

USB ports features.

A pair of USB ports usually (others have only one) peek out through the back of your case but some computer cases also contain front USB ports for an easy-to-use options.

If you don’t have enough USB ports you can add an expansion card to your motherboard expansion slot (PCI slot) to have access to two more USB ports. Another option is to plug a hub into your computer. A typical hub gives you access to four or many more USB ports to receive up to 127 devices.

To facilitate users, USB converters are now available for your existing serial, parallel, SCSI and PS/2 devices to USB devices.

The USB technology allows your devices to draw power from their USB connection. So your low-power devices such as mouse, MP3 or digital cameras are powered by the computer through the USB ports. It is not the same thing for others high-powered devices like scanners or printers which have to supply their own power.

Nowadays USB technology allows certain devices like speakers to eliminate the using of a sound card in the computer. Just plug and enjoy!

Note that only external devices use USB high speed ports.