USB, short for Universal Serial Bus, is an industry standard that establishes specifications for cables, connectors and protocols for connection, communication and power supply (interfacing) between computers, peripherals and other computers.
USB was designed to standardize the connection of computer peripherals (including keyboards, pointing devices, digital cameras, printers, portable media players, disk drives and network adapters) to personal computers, both to communicate and to supply electric power. It has largely replaced a variety of earlier interfaces, such as serial ports and parallel ports, as well as separate power chargers for portable devices – and has become commonplace on a wide range of devices.
Released in 1996, the USB standard is maintained by the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF).
There have been four generations of USB specifications: USB 1.x, USB 2.0, USB 3.x, and USB4.x.
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