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PREFACE:
The Universal Serial Bus (USB) has finally come. USB is an external
device interconnection standard that provides three primary features.
These features include common cabling, hot swapping Plug & Play, and
expansion. There are USB cameras, printers, mice, keyboards, scanners,
modems, joysticks, LAN adapters, etc.
CABLING:
USB uses a common set of connectors. Forget all those other cable
connectors, USB only uses two. These two connectors determine what goes
upstream (towards the computer) and what goes downstream (away from the
computer).
HOT SWAPPING PLUG & PLAY:
It really works. Plug in or un-plug a USB device while your computer
is turned on. Plug in a new device, and windows will ask you for a driver.
That is, if you have Windows 95 OSR2, Windows 98, or Windows 2000. Windows
95 OSR2 has limited USB capability. If you are seriously considering USB
peripherals, consider Windows 98 or 2000.
EXPANSION:
USB supports up to 128 devices. However, most computers have two USB
ports. Each port is cabable of either 12Mbps or 1.5Mbps. To add more
than two USB devices, a USB hub can be used. Make sure you buy a powered
hub. A 4 port USB hub will convert 1 of the computer ports into 4. I
plug my high bandwidth devices into one hub into one port on the computer and
all the low bandwidth devices into another hub in the other computer port.
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