USB connectors have been increasingly replacing other types as charging cables of portable devices.
Examples of peripherals that are connected via USB include computer keyboards and mice, video cameras, printers, portable media players, mobile (portable) digital telephones, disk drives, and network adapters. It has largely replaced interfaces such as serial ports and parallel ports and has become commonplace on a wide range of devices. USB was designed to standardize the connection of peripherals to personal computers, both to exchange data and to supply electric power. Over the years USB(-PD) has been adopted as the standard power supply and charging format for many mobile devices, such as mobile phones, reducing the need for proprietary chargers. USB also provides power to peripheral devices the latest versions of the standard extend the power delivery limits for battery charging and devices requiring up to 240 watts ( USB Power Delivery (USB-PD)). Įach specification sub-version supports different signaling rates from 1.5 and 12 Mbit/s total in USB 1.0 to 80 Gbit/s (in each direction) in USB4. USB4 particularly supports the tunneling of the Thunderbolt 3 protocols, namely PCI Express (PCIe, load/store interface) and DisplayPort (display interface). USB4 enhances the data transfer and power delivery functionality withĪ connection-oriented, tunneling architecture designed to combine multiple protocols onto a single physical interface, so that the total speed and performance of the USB4 Fabric can be dynamically shared. DisplayPort, HDMI), and many other uses, as well as all previous USB connectors.Īs of 2024, USB consists of four generations of specifications: USB 1. In the current standard the USB-C connector replaces the many various connectors for power (up to 240 W), displays (e.g. It has evolved into a standard to replace virtually all common ports on computers, mobile devices, peripherals, power supplies, and manifold other small electronics. Prior versions of USB became commonplace on a wide range of devices, such as keyboards, mice, cameras, printers, scanners, flash drives, smartphones, game consoles, and power banks. USB was originally designed to standardize the connection of peripherals to computers, replacing various interfaces such as serial ports, parallel ports, game ports, and ADB ports. displays, keyboards, and mass storage devices, and to and from intermediate hubs, which multiply the number of a host's ports. It specifies its architecture, in particular its physical interface, and communication protocols for data transfer and power delivery to and from hosts, such as personal computers, to and from peripheral devices, e.g. Universal Serial Bus ( USB) is an industry standard that allows data exchange and delivery of power between many various types of electronics. Various legacy USB and related connectors (left to right): USB Micro-B plug, proprietary UC-E6 plug, USB Mini-B plug, Standard-A-like receptacle (non-compliant), Standard-A plug, Standard-B plug. Serial port, parallel port, game port, Apple Desktop Bus, PS/2 port, and FireWire (IEEE 1394)