Just How Popular is USB?

The Universal Serial Bus has become the most successful computing interface of all time. With billions of ports in active use today, USB has become the de-facto peripheral computing interface. An ever growing array of consumer products and gadgets feature computing connectivity via USB; and its simple plug-and-play powered interface makes connecting everything from keyboards and mice to cell phones and hard drives simple and easy. It just works.

With over 2 Billion USB ports shipped to date and increasing penetration in the consumer electronics (CE) space, there is a growing demand from customers to move USB beyond the desktop and provide flexible bridging solutions for USB 2.0 devices.

The CE segment has been a strong driver of this success, with continued adoption of USB in digital cameras, portable digital media players, computers and digital televisions. Last year, the number of high-speed USB-enabled device shipments surpassed those of low- and full-speed devices. As USB popularity continues to rise, close to four billion devices are expected to ship in 2012. Stat Source: Wired USB 2008, In-Stat Market Research

USB Beyond the Desktop

Most computer devices available today feature USB connectivity to plug into one or several USB ports on a desktop PC, laptop, or handheld computers. USB connectivity offers an easy to use plug-and-play interface that ensures a standard connection for peripheral devices. Some common peripheral devices include printers, keyboards, mice, joysticks, printers, scanners, digital cameras, storage devices, modems and video conferencing cameras.

When the USB specification was first drafted, the requirement for a USB link exceeding 16 feet wasn’t anticipated. With the introduction of USB extension, any generic USB device can now be enhanced in its role on the desktop or remote application. For instance, a generic web camera can become a remote monitoring camera located miles away from the monitoring station. Simply by extending USB, the keyboard and mouse can be relocated to any location regardless of the distance. Many possible applications exist wherein an everyday problem can be easily, reliably and economically solved by simply extending the distance of the USB device(s).

To learn more about USB extension, read about Icron’s patented ExtremeUSB® technology over various transmission media.