Today all our work is based on computers and one of the most basic connectivity for computers is USB and everything whether its keyboard, mouse, gamepad, or smartphone. Today we all have the high-speed USB 3.1 interfaced devices for our PC but have you wondered from where and how the USB interface came into existence?
First, when computers evolved to look like a real computer we need lots of wires and connectors to connect any peripheral to it. Then in 1994, a group of 7 companies (Compaq, DEC, IBM, Intel, Microsoft NEC, and Nortel) began the development of a connector to replace the multitude of connectors at the back of the PC. And the first USB supported PC was built in 1995 by Intel.
Check down below the detailed table of the different USB interface releases:
| Release name | Release date | Maximum transfer rate | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| USB 0.8 | December 1994 | Prerelease | |
| USB 0.9 | April 1995 | Prerelease | |
| USB 0.99 | August 1995 | Prerelease | |
| USB 1.0 | January 1996 | Low Speed (1.5 Mbit/s), Full-Speed (12 Mbit/s) | |
| USB 1.0 Release Candidate | November 1995 | Prerelease | |
| USB 1.1 | August 1998 | ||
| USB 2.0 | April 2000 | High Speed (480 Mbit/s) | |
| USB 3.0 | November 2008 | SuperSpeed (5 Gbit/s) | Also referred to as USB 3.1 Gen 1 by USB 3.1 standard |
| USB 3.1 | July 2013 | SuperSpeed+ (10 Gbit/s) | Also referred to as USB 3.1 Gen 2 by USB 3.1 standard |
USB 1.0 was first released in January 1996 and that time the transfer speed is only 12 MBit/s. USB 2.0 was released in April 2000 and from then we are using this interface until USB 3.0 launched on 12 November 2008 with the transfer speed of 5GBit/s. From then only our hunger for more data transfer speed arisen and now we have USB 3.1 and USB Type-C released in January 2013 and August 2014 respectively.
Well USB Type-C is in an early stage and only covers a few devices but soon it will capture the world of tech and you’ll see a USB Type-C port on your smartphones, laptops, and even your personal desktops.
