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Past Present & Future

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USB – or Universal Serial Bus technology has become a widespread, simple, cheap way of connecting all kinds of devices. Its popularity has come about extremely quickly as the history of USB only stretches back to the mid-1990s. This article gives an overview of USB technology, its history and its future.

History:

USB technology was developed in order to present a standard means by which devices, particularly computer-related devices, could interconnect and communicate. It was created by a collaboration of Intel, Compaq, Microsoft, Digital, IBM, and Northern Telecom. In the early days of the IBM PC, there were a myriad of connections for different types of devices including, AT, serial, parallel, joystick, SCSI & PS/2. None of these ports were compatible with each other & each served essentially the same function. Enter USB. Not only did USB give one interface, it provided power for some devices and it enabled users to plug a large number of devices into one machine.

Pre-releases of the USB standard came in 1994 with the final USB 1.0 specification being released to market in November 1995. The standard was improved upon in September 1998 with USB 1.1 which many of the problems identified in the original standard were fixed.

USB could work at 1.5 or 12 mbps but with competition from Firewire & with technology placing greater demands on bandwidth, USB 2.0 released in August 2000, could handle speeds of 480mbps

Adoption:

All connectors face an adoption problem and USB was no different. There is only a market for a device that is interconnectable if there are other devices in the market that it can connect to. These network effect can hamper the adoption of every device (if you are the only person with a telephone, it's not much use but if you're one of millions with the same, standardised system, the increased market for the standard makes it more affordable and more appealing to others).

USB was given a real boost by the iMac which offered USB ports only & no legacy option. This meant that there was a market where USB could gain a foothold.

The Present:

USB devices perform many functions extremely well. Devices can be hot-swapped - that is they could be connected & disconnected without it being necessary to reboot a PC. Devices from many thousands of manufacturers can intercommunicate, many devices can be installed without a specific device driver, some devices can be connected to computers without the need for an external power supply and others can recharge by being connected via a USB device.

USB connectors are robust in that they do not rely on pins that are easy to bend or break. USB cables are designed so that static electricity is discharged before a connection is made making the standard more durable.

The connections are extremely usable & it is easy to connect USB devices or to realise that you have the wrong end of the cable. By design, the cables are easy to attach & remove – there is no need for screws - meaning that they are easily accessible by all

Future:

The future for USB is the USB 3.0 standard that will work at 4.8 gbps, ten times the current rate. This new standard will only be backwards-compatible with USB 2.0 but will include some power conservation features. Increased speed & better power consumption will help USB compete with the other standards on the market including Firewire 800 & eSATA.

To put the performance of the new USB standard into perspective, currently, it would take 15 minutes to copy a 27gb high definition film; the new standard will mean that this can be accomplished in 70 seconds.

The USB standard is extremely usable and durable & it has massive popularity. Many mobile 'phones have a USB connection & USB Flash drives make the transfer of large amounts of data an extremely simple process. A subculture of USB gadgets has sprung up in recent years with weird & wacky devices like USB fridges, vacuums, toasters, slippers & back massagers all hitting the market to massive amounts of interest and varying degrees of success. It is interesting that whilst it was the brainchild of a number of companies including Microsoft & Intel it was Apple that gave USB its popularity. Windows machines did not deal well with USB even as late as Windows 98 but the iMac showed how USB devices could be used to give a great deal of variety through extreme simplicity.

Past Present & Future

Brazil was born 8,000 years ago with the arrival of the first indigenous people that crossed the Bering land island into Alaska, coming from the North & Central Americas. During the 16th century until the 19th century, Brazil was a colony of Portugal until September 7th, 1822 when the country declared its independency from Portugal and became a constitutional monarchy – the Empire of Brazil.

During the pre-colonial period, the Andes and the mountain ranges of Northern South America created a very sharp cultural boundary between the already settled agrarians and the semi-nomadic tribes of the east. By the time the very first European discovery, the current territory of Brazil had about 2,000 tribes and nations. The above mentioned indigenous tribes subsisted on fishing, hunting, migrant agriculture and gathering.

Portugal didn’t show very much interest in Brazil until 1530 because they had huge profits through commerce made with China, Indonesia and India. During the first century after the European discovery ( April 22, 1500 by Pedro Alvares Cabral – although contested by some people ), the country’s major export was brazilwood which is a large tree with a trunk that contains prized red dye and was almost extinct due to overexploitation.

The biggest downside of this period was the extremely high mortality rate among slaves in sugar and gold enterprises. More than that, there weren’t as much females as needed in order to repopulate the territory. Some of the slaves managed to escape from these plantations and established independent settlements, the so-called quilombos in distant areas. The most important one was the Palmares and was a consolidated kingdom that had more than 30,000 people in the 1670-1680s.

Unfortunately, these independent settlements were destroyed by the private troops and the government during long sieges and the usage of the heavy artillery. More than that, during the first two centuries of this period, many European powers tried to occupy this territory mainly because of the vast natural resources. Many French colonists tried to occupy the nowadays called Rio de Janeiro starting from 1555 until 1567 – this was called the France Antarctique episode and the nowadays called Sao Luis starting from 1612 until 1614 - this was called the France Equinoxiale.

During the Empire of Brazil period this country was one of the only two modern states in the Americas that had its own indigenous monarchy ( the other one was Mexico ), for a period of almost 90 years. In the year 1815, the king vested the country with the dignity of a united kingdom with Algarves and Portugal.

Brazil – the Old Republic started from 1889 and lasted until 1930. During the late 19th century, coffee replaced sugar as Brazil’s main export merchandise. This was a very prolific period for Brazil as the exports grew tremendous. This period ended when the military coup placed Getulio Vargas, a civilian, in the presidency. From 1930 until 1964, the country was by Getulio Dorneles Vargas ( 1930 – 1954 ). After Vargas’ reign, a democratic regime prevailed until 1964 – in this period the capital of Brazil was Brasilia. After 1964 and until 1985, Brazil was ruled by a military dictatorship and after that the “redemocratization" period began and persists in the present.

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Both Sam Goddard & Adriaan P. are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.

Sam Goddard has sinced written about articles on various topics from Computers and The Internet. . Sam Goddard's top article generates over 9900 views. to your Favourites.

Adriaan P. has sinced written about articles on various topics from Places to Visit in, Computers and The Internet. Adriaan P. is the manager of where visitors can find the most affordable. Adriaan P.'s top article generates over 12100 views. to your Favourites.

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