Creative USB Play

About "USB"

USB (Universal Serial Bus) is a popular hardware interface that allows users to attach secondary hardware devices to their computer in a Plug-and-Play fashion. Originally released in 1995, USB ports began to appear in newly manufactured computers by 1997. Windows 98 was the first Windows platform to support USB technology. It wasn't long before the popularity of USB grew to the point where all previous standards of connectivity were replaced - gone were the now antiquated serial and parallel ports most computers used up to that point. Today's computers will typically provide a minimum of four USB ports as a standard feature.
A single USB port can connect more than one hundred interchangeable devices such as modem, keyboard, mouse, joysticks, scanners, printer, digital cameras, and external storage. USB also supports Plug-and-Play installation and allows devices to be hot swapped. USB has become the standard connection for several devices such as digital cameras and scanners. USB also enjoys wide customer brand recognition and a reputation for high performance and user friendliness.





USB Standardization

USB has become the industry standard primarily because all the major manufacturers collectively agreed to use the design and function of this quick connect technology. Some of the notable companies that agreed to implement the USB technology include Intel, Apple, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, NEC, and Agere.
The current USB version 2.0 was released in the spring of 2000 and has provided significant advantages through the use of its backward compatibility feature. This allows previous versions of USB to conform to newer applications which is important because as computers age it is increasingly