The USB is a nice type: history and perspectives of an immortal format

The new MacBook Pro has ensured goodbye to USB type A, a connector on Macs for almost twenty years and that has made the story of Apple, and more. A painful, but inevitable transition.

The Universal Serial Bus (known by all as USB) is an interface that older MAC users have learned to know at the time of the first IMac, the first model of Apple's second life, which enshrined the return home of Steve Jobs and who has (re) launched Apple In the world of casual computing and (then) different.

But in spite of rumors that today shout to the scandal for the lack of presence of the connector more using in the history of computer science in the new models, at first things did not go Toppo well: in 1998 computers, especially Macs, were mostly a Office accessory or graphic studio, hard to find them in the living room or bedroom, having to stop the PCs, cheaper and suitable for an industry with which Apple never (really) tied up, the games.

The USB input in the Mac World (in version 1.1) coincided with the farewell of the SCSI connector, a little soft passage that, if in the Windows world was well received (where SCSI never really arrived) in that Mac was like a trauma.

Elephant memory

USB had the huge advantage of being able to be plugged in "hot", which meant a computer turned on, was smaller and could be used for both external memory units (disks and keys) and for peripherals (mice, keyboards, pads and more on IPod, IPhone and headphones), But it had the huge drawback of being very slow (12 Mbps rated against the 40 of the Ultra Wide SCSI).

Not missed so much that Apple joined to usb the FireWire, more expensive but more capable of USB for disks and memory drives, which already beat 10 to 1 SCSI.

But the history and fame of USB, despite the early moans, grew fast aided especially by the diffusion in Windows, where FireWire is never (really) arrived. In 2000 came the USB 2.0 format, backward compatible with USB 1 and 1.1 and capable of a nominal transfer rate of 480 Mbps, more or less when Apple passed to the FireWire 800 format (which dubbed the first FireWire in all, including speed , but had a different connector).

Apple took a while to adopt the new USB 2.0 format that came three years later than the Windows world, a very mature market.

The USB 2.0 format was a revelation: they blossomed hubs of all kinds, practically any accessory was equipped with a USB port and also the series of IPod, initially based on FireWire, passed to USB mainly because of compatibility with the Windows world, then A key turning point in the market.

Mice, keyboards, headphones, speakers, graphic tablets, MP3 players, ipods, iphones, ipads, clocks, mechanical discs, flash drives and keys or even only bulbs, fans and accessories for intimate use are now sold with a USB connector. Whether you are exchanging data with the computer or drawing only to the power of the channel to date a USB connector is much more universal, for example, an electrical outlet (which is subject to the change of characteristics and form of country in the country).

USB, a nice type

But despite the diffusiore of oil, in memory of those who write far greater than any other hardware standard in the world of computing, the history of USB is not without shadows, misunderstandings and controversial aspects.

The duality with SCSI and FireWire, albeit in specific areas was short-lived, but it is undeniable that the story will bring it back. Much more controversial was the history of the connectors, of which USB is well stuffed.

The type a connector, what we all know, rectangular with a footprint in the center, is the typical USB connector that stops (VA) computer side.

It is estimated that it was a technical limit of the time to determine its asymmetric shape, which still makes it difficult to insert it into a computer (especially in an iMac), but it was not the only one. Also the choice to create a second USB connector type B, of square shape, which typically rests on the device side, turned out in uncomfortable time.

Minor aspects, or not

Not to mention the little precision of the cables: a USB 1.1 and 2.0 cable are different internally (but they use the same connectors) and can frustrate some advantages of the second, I have never been regulated a standard wording to alert the Users, who Tipicametne once opened the box had no way of distinguishing the difference between them if not trying it on the field.

To make things difficult have arrived other connectors, always USB 2.0, probably asked by the big computer manufacturers and devices to minimize the spaces. Mini USB was the first attempt to replace the type B connector with a smaller one, which has spread a lot in cameras, 2.5 "discs, camcorders

To make things difficult have arrived other connectors, always USB 2.0, probably asked by the big computer manufacturers and devices to minimize the spaces. Mini USB was the first attempt to replace the Type B connector with a smaller one, which has spread much in cameras, 2.5 "discs, camcorders and accessories such as graphics tablets, while in the printers sector the old Type B connector still resists.

This has succeeded the Micro USB, which today dominates the market thanks to the diffusion in the smartphone sector (where it has become a standard) first and accessories for smartphones then (as speakers and battery pack). Apple never believed in the Micro USB preferring to impose its variant first in 6Pin version and then Lightning, the first serial connector to be symmetrical.

But if on the one hand the type B has ceded the step to the Mini USB first and Micro USB then (with Variant Lightning), the type a connector has remained unchangeable until today, switching to a version 3.0 unchanged aesthetically (except for the internal dimensions often of blue color) Capable of bringing a speed ten times higher than USB 2.0, but being backward compatible with it and often even with the old standard 1.1. On the other side the type B has split offering a normal variant and a Micro, aesthetically unwatchable, always asymmetrical but very functional and economical.

This is to say that you, the USB is a standard, you can connect practically anything, from the mouse to the Hard Disk, from the Bluetooth speaker to charge the battery to the portable fan. But it's not a standard that easy, to think about it: four versions (1.0, 1.1, 2.0 and 3.0, the first ever arrived on Mac), eight connectors, three cables and all intertwined with each other in spite of users, who are often left to themselves and a drawer full or cables to which it is difficult to give an order.

Apple, first, had the courage and daring to impose a change, as it was at the time for the Floppy, for the CD/DVD and for other abandoned hardware formats.

The new advancing

The USB 3.1 connector (also called type-C) is a very important change, and the new MacBook Pro today offers a model historically equal to the first iMac in many places of view.

The first novelty is the unique connector, on both sides: this means that a cable can do everything, connect to everything, without differences (for now, we will see in the future).

The second novelty is that cable and connector are symmetrical: We could connect the cable to the connector without worrying about the verse, and the same on the part of the device, being the two identical parts. In practice, type C is the definitive connector: Considering that the current standard is also common with Thunderbolt 3, with differences in performance but not of shape and design, we expect a more rosy future, less anger and a more tidy cable tray.

Finally, also from the software point of view things are certainly better: a USB 3.1 connector can drive a data connection with an external disk, a network connection, drive an external display in 4k (or Anaogico in VGA) and also provide an additional socket for the Old USB 3.0.

Sure, it will take more than a few years before the market is adjust to the new standard, that the investments of producers and users are based on the new format instead of the old ones, we will probably spend a lot in adapters (here a brief overview) that in aspirin When we forget them at home, but who writes has already passed this stage so many times, and is still here.

The USB 3.1, or USB-C HUB as the friends call it, is here to stay, it says Apple, they will say it all sooner or later.