11-28-2005, 01:00 AM
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Swami
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 4,303
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Is USB the Only Computing Standard That Works?
"There's only been one standard in the PC industry that has survived and thrived over the past decade� Universal Serial Bus, good old USB. . . . Openness has lead developers to build everything from flash memory sticks/keys to silly things like a USB-powered toothbrush. At the same time, people have stuck to the standard in a disciplined fashion without breaking it. Compare that to the freewheeling OS Linux crowd with multi-flavored "distributions" and it becomes apparent that a little too much freedom can be a bad thing. Perhaps more importantly, vendors have taken the original standard and extended it beyond USB 2.0 into two different paths. USB On-the-Go shrinks down the connector size and implements low-power features so it is easier to implement USB into portable devices, but the big wave will be to move everything into Wireless USB."
Controversial? The Inquirer does try.  But, can you name another surviving and thriving PC standard that has stood the test of time? Perhaps I'm jaded, but one of the more interesting recent hardware changes has been the move to mini USB instead of using proprietary connectors. This has not gone unnoticed. The Consumer Electronics Association are working on a industry-wide common connector for charging and synchronising future mobiles devices and Mini-USB may well be that future standard. Whenever I travel I currently have to take a rat's nest of connecter and charging cables and anything to reduce that would be appreciated. It would be wonderful to freely interchange cables, connectors and peripherals. Ah, the blessing of standards. Ironically the restrictions they bring can grant consumers greater freedom. At this point should I mention the benefits to Europe of the common GSM mobile telephone standard? ;-) Now, if only someone would set SD as the common media card standard across all mobile devices. . . :grumble:
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11-28-2005, 02:47 AM
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Pupil
Join Date: Sep 2002
Posts: 38
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Quote:
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But, can you name another surviving and thriving PC standard that has stood the test of time?
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Some people might consider this post "off topic", but since you asked ...
Several standards have faired as well as USB or even better. The great grandaddy is Ethernet, which started out as thick and thin coax, then went to 10 MBPS twisted pair, then 100 MBPS twisted pair with CAT 4 or CAT 5 cable. We will see how successful the higher speed flavors will be.
How about IDE disk drives? They've not been around as long as Ethernet, but they have been around longer than USB, and they are still ubiquitous.
PCI has had a strong run and is still going strong.
DRAM has had many variations on the same basic theam over the years, with only one unsuccsessful branch. (What was that expensive standard that Intel pushed about 4 or 5 years ago? Was it RDRAM?)
PCMCIA, CF, SD, and SDIO are contenders for long-lived standards, even if they aren't quite as popular.
You can even consider the ever-popular PC power supply as a standard for desktop PCs, with it's 5V and 12V outputs.
I'll bet other people can come up with other good examples. (Please do NOT include Sony's memory stick) :devilboy:
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11-28-2005, 03:28 AM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Sep 2002
Posts: 109
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What I find more than a little funny is that the USB standard was first rolled out on the Mac, and the PC industry only grudgingly accepted it as a standard over the next several years.
It's now referred to as a 'successful long-lived PC standard'.
Yeah, only if you bludgeon PC users over the head wtih it for years.  ops:
I've owned both Mac's and PC's and aware of the strengths of both patforms so I'm not biased. ;-)
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11-28-2005, 04:27 AM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 58
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There is also the understated wired keyboard and mouse. 
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11-28-2005, 05:12 AM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 1,041
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by rob_ocelot
What I find more than a little funny is that the USB standard was first rolled out on the Mac, and the PC industry only grudgingly accepted it as a standard over the next several years.
It's now referred to as a 'successful long-lived PC standard'.
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Actually, I think you are actually talking about Firewire that debuted on the Mac. USB was Intel's choice on the PC platform.
I think USB is way awesome considering what we had to deal with before, though it still needs some decent improvements. If you have a powered hub and a powered device, they should work. You still gotta be careful about unplugging certain USB devices..
However, I think even better is Ethernet. You plug it in all togther, it works and you can mix different generational items and it will still work without a problem. Try doing that with USB...
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11-28-2005, 05:51 AM
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Editorial Contributor
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 5,411
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I have had my gripes about USB over the years, things not working, devices being lost, but overall it's been pretty decent. Guess it's a tribute to the standard. Given half a chance OEMs will still try to bastardize a standard just enough that they comply but can cause issues if not used in a homogenous setting.
Apparently the power paragraphs need some work. I have two USB chargeable devices that charge fine if hooked into a PC port, or the OEMs dedicated charger, but refuse to work with any other 'USB' charger. That's my SMT5600 and my Suunto SPOT Watch. Darn them anyway.
__________________
Sometimes you are the anteater, sometimes you are the ant.
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11-28-2005, 06:00 AM
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Neophyte
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 7
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Yes, I believe Rick is correct. Most sources credit Compaq, IBM, DEC, Intel, Microsoft, NEC, and Northern Telecom with the joint development of USB. I admire Macs, but there is no "Apple" in the foregoing list...
__________________
-Randall Garrett-
Apex Software
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11-28-2005, 10:02 AM
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Mystic
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,734
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CD ROM's is another long-lived standard thats still ubiquitous, has graduated to larger capacities (DVD) but still remains backward compatible.
As a PPC user with USB host I appreciate USB standards, but I still cant plug in a USB scanner to my ppc and expect it to work. Its just because of the OS monopoly of MS that everything apears to work very well. Many more standard drivers e.g such as USB Mass Storage and USB HID would have impressed me much more.
Surur
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11-28-2005, 10:37 AM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 99
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it's not like it was an easy-going walk through to park to get USB where it is now. 6 years ago, when i was doing tech support for a certain company with cow boxes, you would be hardpressed to find a usb device that worked in any fashion in which it was supposed to when you connected it. printers were so bad that you could connect them and install the drivers in the wrong order, and the damned things would never work (without hacking the registry and deleting tons of hidden files and whatnot) the above mentioned cow box company even had one model of computer (very low end) that only had USB, and no other ports (not even a single PS2 port) and you could turn it into a brick by accidentally deleting USB from device manager. from that point on, it was uttery useless, because you couldn't even get into the bios.
the moral of this rant is that USB got where it is, thanks to winXP. it was only after the release of winXP that USB actually became user-friendly.
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11-28-2005, 10:45 AM
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Ponderer
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 88
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can anyone list the product that use STANDARD MINI-USB connector to charge , sync or connect to computer?
I only know :
POCKETPC: sync and charge~ very good
HTC magician
HTC Universal
HTC wizard
Smartphone: sync and charge
all HTC & MOTOROLA smartphone (please confirm)
mobile phone:
most new motorola phones (transfer files only, does not charge)
Camera:
some sony camera
P series, L series etc (transfer files only, does not charge)
keyboard and mouse:
Creative Labs Wireless Desktop 9000 Pro Keyboard and Mouse (charge keyboard & mouse)
IOGEAR�s Bluetooth Mini Mouse
bluetooth headset:
Nextlink Bluespoon AX Bluetooth Headset
GPS:
forgot...
Please help to update this table / list
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