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Industry leaders Intel,
Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, Lucent, Microsoft, NEC and Philips have joined
together to develop a next generation USB 2.0 specification that will
extend performance by 10 to 20 times over existing capabilities, and enable
new classes of high performance peripherals. With the increased availability
of USB-enabled PCs and USB peripherals on the market today, the need for
legacy dependent input/output (I/O) connectivity is decreasing significantly.
USB 2.0 will be a significant step towards providing additional I/O bandwidth
and broadening the range of peripherals that may be attached to the PC.
USB 2.0 will extend the capabilities of the interface from the 12 Mbps
available on USB 1.1, to between 120-240 Mbps, providing a connection
point for next-generation peripherals which complement higher performance
PCs. USB 2.0 is expected to be both forward and backward compatible with
USB 1.1, and to result in a seamless transition process for the end user.
Due to these factors, USB 2.0 is expected to supercede USB 1.1, which
is already a ubiquitous connector on PC platforms. The rev 0.9 specification
is expected to be available in second half 1999. USB 2.0 systems and peripherals
are expected in second half 2000.
USB 1.1's data rate of 12 Mbps is sufficient for PC peripherals such as
telephones, digital cameras, keyboards, mice, digital joysticks, tablets,
wireless base stations, cartridge, tape, and floppy drives, digital speakers,
scanners and printers. The higher bandwidth of USB 2.0 will permit higher
functionality PC peripherals, including higher resolution video conferencing
cameras, and next generation scanners, printers and fast storage units.
Existing USB peripherals will operate with no change in a USB 2.0 system.
Devices, such as mice, keyboards and game pads, will not require the additional
performance that USB 2.0 offers and will operate as USB 1.1 devices. All
USB devices are expected to co-exist in a USB 2.0 system. The higher speed
of USB 2.0 and increased performance will also allow a greater number
of USB devices to share the available bus bandwidth, up to the architectural
limits of USB.
As with USB 1.1, USB 2.0 is expected to eventually be in industry chipsets.
Once these chipsets reach high volume, it is expected that the relative
cost of USB 1.1 vs. USB 2.0 will be minimal. USB 2.0 is expected to fully
replace the already ubiquitous USB 1.1 in system implementations. Also
like USB 1.1, USB 2.0 will satisfy the peripheral-interface needs of desktops,
mobile systems and other classes of host platforms. To satisfy the needs
of power-sensitive applications such as notebook computers, USB 2.0 will
provide power-management mechanisms to allow aggressive management of
I/O power consumption. This is expected to allow USB to find use even
in demanding low-power systems.
The USB 2.0 core team includes all four members of the USB 1.1 core team
(Compaq, Intel, Microsoft, and NEC), and three new members (Hewlett Packard,
Lucent and Philips). As with USB 1.1, members of the core promoters group
do not intend to charge royalties for essential patents required to implement
the USB 2.0 specification.
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