At 05:21 PM 10/31/2004 -0500, you wrote:

>USB is a cash cow. It is a set of protocols and hardware specifications 
>designed to sell chips and products made by a group of manufacturers with 
>a specific set of manufacturing and engineering capabilities. That's how 
>one makes money in a saturated market apparently.
>
>The common points seem to be: most silicon that will run off usb will be 
>low power cmos at 3V or lower. It will be intelligent (no $2 homemade 
>interfaces are possible). Any need to extend the network beyond basic 
>capabilities will require the end user to purchase more equipment (hubs), 
>that will sell more chips.
>
>For all this complexity the users will receive the benefit of automatic 
>device identification and driver loading, and a little more speed than 
>serial (but less than firewire, which was already available when usb was 
>invented).
>
>This is just my opinion, feel free to comment.
>
>Peter

The major benefit of USB over serial for low-speed devices is that it
supplies power- reducing the cost of peripherals. It also functions
well (2.0+) for high-speed devices such as scanners and digital cameras
that would be useless with a serial interface. The cables and plugs are
potentially extremely cheap- only a few wires.

I don't think the hubs are any big deal, the companies that make both
the hubs and (I think) the chips for hubs are not huge companies. I think
they just wanted to remove all the legacy barnacles of PS2 and serial
ports and streamline future computers- while making peripherals cheaper
and lighter. Win-win.

Best regards,

Spehro Pefhany --"it's the network..."            "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog  Info for designers:  http://www.speff.com




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