USB vs USB 2?

[nubbin]

WHat's the difference/ And, are they "bawkwrads compatible" i.e. will my USb devices function if I fit my computer with a USB2 PCI card?

[Plotloss]

USB2 is a boatload quicker.

USB devices will work in a USB2 socket.

What I really want to know though, is that USB is truly Universal why arent the USB connectors on both bloody ends of the cable so you only need one cable?

[pdV6]

Plotloss said:

USB2 is a boatload quicker.

Accidentally plugged my camera into a USB1 socket t'other day. Took forever to download...

[GregE240]

USB - 1.5MB/sec

USB2 - 60MB/sec

So USB2 is 40x faster than USB.

[JonRB]

One question

If you put a USB 2.0 device in a 1.1 port, should it work?

I have a 256Mb USB 2.0 keyfob. Works fine in my machine at work (USB 2.0, I suspect) and in our laptop (definitely USB 2.0) but my desktop at home can't read it through the 1.1 hub or even plugged directly into a back-panel port (which makes me suspect that it too is 1.1)

Edited to apologise for hijacking the thread.

>> Edited by JonRB on Tuesday 11th May 11:26

[Plotloss]

Dont think it will.

1.1 device in a 2.0 slot no worries but a 2.0 device in a 1.1 slot says to me its missing something...

[nubbin]

So, ordinary USB 1.1 devices won't be any quicker - is this correct? i.e. Peripherals also need to be USB 2 to take advantage of the higher transfer speeds?

[Plotloss]

Yep, its the slowest component that dictates the speed.

So plugging a 1.1 into a 2.0 will still mean in transfers at 1.5 but at least it will work.

[jmorgan]

JonRB said:

One question If you put a USB 2.0 device in a 1.1 port, should it work?

My CD-RW does. Its 2 but defaults to me Mac 1.1.

[squirrelz]

JonRB said:

One question If you put a USB 2.0 device in a 1.1 port, should it work? I have a 256Mb USB 2.0 keyfob. Works fine in my machine at work (USB 2.0, I suspect) and in our laptop (definitely USB 2.0) but my desktop at home can't read it through the 1.1 hub or even plugged directly into a back-panel port (which makes me suspect that it too is 1.1)

What's the operating system?

[JonRB]

squirrelz said:

What's the operating system?

The laptop is XP Pro, the work machine is Win2K Server, the desktop (the one that doesn't read it) is Win2K Pro.

[tim2100]

USB 1.1 IS fully compatable with USB 2.0.

USB 2 device will work in USB 1 port & vice visa

[Ribol]

Question from a non techie.
If you can buy a USB 2.0 pci card today to slot into any PC and it works 40 times faster, why did they ever start with the slower USB 1.1 cards/sockets in the first place?
What has changed, it obviously isn't the operating system as you can retro fit them and it works with both 1.1 and 2.0?

Ivan

[pdV6]

Ribol said:

Question from a non techie. If you can buy a USB 2.0 pci card today to slot into any PC and it works 40 times faster, why did they ever start with the slower USB 1.1 cards/sockets in the first place? What has changed, it obviously isn't the operating system as you can retro fit them and it works with both 1.1 and 2.0? Ivan

Er, if you can buy a 240mph Maclaren F1, why did we start with 5mph horseless carriages?

[TheHobbit]

JonRB said:

One question If you put a USB 2.0 device in a 1.1 port, should it work? I have a 256Mb USB 2.0 keyfob. Works fine in my machine at work (USB 2.0, I suspect) and in our laptop (definitely USB 2.0) but my desktop at home can't read it through the 1.1 hub or even plugged directly into a back-panel port (which makes me suspect that it too is 1.1) Edited to apologise for hijacking the thread. >> Edited by JonRB on Tuesday 11th May 11:26

I have a USB2 scanner at home, when plugged into my PC (which only has USB1.1) it works, but slower, and XP puts up a little box that says "you have plugged a USB2 device into a USB1.1 socket, and so it's gonna be slower than its potential"

[JonRB]

I suspect I have a problem with my Win2K desktop actually. I was using the XP Pro laptop as my main machine for a while and recently went back to the desktop so copied my entire profile (ie. C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\*.* /s) from the laptop to the desktop.

I suspect I have messed something up because I have just discovered that neither the CD Writer or the DVD drive work any more either and give the same error as the keyfob does ("Incorrect function", I think it is).

So the whole thing about a 2.0 USB keyfob not working in a 1.1 slot may be a red herring.

>> Edited by JonRB on Wednesday 12th May 10:36

[GregE240]

Jon,

Bear in mind USB 2.0 support in Win2K was only made available with SP4. Other than incompatibility issues (not on HCL etc), it should be okay.

Check out the following KB articles for more info:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;319973

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;819332

Hope this helps.

Greg

[Ribol]

pdV6 said:

Ribol said: Question from a non techie. If you can buy a USB 2.0 pci card today to slot into any PC and it works 40 times faster, why did they ever start with the slower USB 1.1 cards/sockets in the first place? What has changed, it obviously isn't the operating system as you can retro fit them and it works with both 1.1 and 2.0? Ivan Er, if you can buy a 240mph Maclaren F1, why did we start with 5mph horseless carriages?

I think you will find that it took a little longer than a few months for the horseless carriage to evolve to a Maclaren F1, nice try though. I asked the question because I am trying to learn something here.

I will try and make the question clearer, a two year old PC had a USB 1.1 PCI card in it and that was as good as it got. What changed in the few months after that that allowed a USB 2.0 PCI card to be 40 times faster?

Ivan

[JonRB]

Ribol said:

I will try and make the question clearer, a two year old PC had a USB 1.1 PCI card in it and that was as good as it got. What changed in the few months after that that allowed a USB 2.0 PCI card to be 40 times faster?

It's all about costs and standards. A technology has to get to a certain price point before it is adopted. So they released version 1.1 whilst they were still developing 2.0, achieved market penetration / take-up and then when 2.0 was ready (and could be produced cheaply enough) released it.

A year or two is a very long time in the computing / electronics world.

[thepeoplespal]

JonRB said:

Ribol said: I will try and make the question clearer, a two year old PC had a USB 1.1 PCI card in it and that was as good as it got. What changed in the few months after that that allowed a USB 2.0 PCI card to be 40 times faster? It's all about costs and standards. A technology has to get to a certain price point before it is adopted. So they released version 1.1 whilst they were still developing 2.0, achieved market penetration / take-up and then when 2.0 was ready (and could be produced cheaply enough) released it. A year or two is a very long time in the computing / electronics world.

IIRC my old AMD K2-350 (super socket 7 motherboard)has 2 USB1.1 slots and for the first 2 odd years nothing used USB, now its a few years further down the line everything is USB.

Firewire was about (proposed) around the same time with more or less the same capabilities as USB2. While firewire has had some penetration the popularity of USB and now USB 2.0 will probably kill Firewire off. Is Firewire the inferior product to USB1? No, but market penetration makes if feel that way.