USB (Universal Serial Bus) is a very common data port that is used for a very wide range of peripherals. Some of the supported devices include external storage devices, webcams, printers, scanners input devices like keyboards and mice, and much more. There are many different common connections used for USB devices, but other than being physically shaped different they all generally provide the same function. USB is much faster than previous, commonly used data ports. Another benefit of USB is that it is able to supply power at 5V DC and 500mA. This allows the USB port to power low-power devices so that you don't have to plug the device into any other power source.

Detailed Specifications:
There are different revisions of the USB spec. The different versions primarily change the supported speeds of the data connection. Here are the different speeds:
Low Speed (USB 1.0) - 1.5Mbit/s
Full Speed (USB 1.1) - 12Mbit/s
High Speed (USB 2.0) - 480Mbit/s
Super Speed (USB 3.0) - 5000Mbit/s


USB supports a maximum standard cable length of 16 feet. Using passive USB cables longer than this can result in improper function of the USB device. You can get around this problem by using active USB extension cables. These cables have repeaters in them that allow the signal to be repeated to longer distances.

Each USB port can only physically connect to one device. The design of the system, however, allows you to use a USB hub to split that one USB port into several, allowing you to connect many USB devices to a single port. This creates the ability to easily expand the number of USB devices can be connected to a single computer.

Various connectors:

There are several different USB connector types. USB A is the connection found on computers. USB B and mini-B are the most common connectors found on USB devices. Below are the 4 most common connector types, but many more exist as some companies design their own versions for their products.

USB A

USB B

USB Mini-A

USB Mini-B

See more data connection types