A connecting device must identify whether it’s a low or full speed device at its initialization. USB 1.0 devices can either be a low speed device which runs at 1.5mbps or a full speed device at 12Mbps.
The 12Mbps speed of 1.0 devices is already an upgrade to the very first standard which only allowed 1.5Mbps connections. High speed devices like thumb drives proliferated quickly, and digital cameras and camcorders began to sport a USB cable for connecting to computers, but the hindrance of very slow connection speeds became quite apparent rather quickly. But as USB became more popular, more devices also began to switch to USB because of the growing popularity of the USB port and the relative ease of plugging in devices. Devices like mice, keyboards, game controllers, and a few others, which were the devices that USB was for, usually transmitted only a very small amount of data to function properly. Originally intended for much slower devices, the initial USB implementation did not provide any option for high speed data transmission. The real world speeds are lower for both standards since there are other factors that can affect its total throughput. USB 1.0 devices can only achieve a maximum speed of 12Mbps while 2.0 devices can theoretically achieve up to 40 times that at 480Mbps. To the end user, the difference between these two devices is purely in its speed. 1.0 which was the original standard of USB, and 2.0 which is the improved version for newer devices.
Using these flash drive devices, you’ll be able to get the most out of your devices.ĭon’t forget to check out Every USB’s selection of USB 3.The Universal Serial Bus or USB has become the most used port in computers today. Ultimately, you can benefit from using any of these flash drive options, but if you want faster data transfer rates and the ability to send and receive data at the same time, along with better encoding capabilities, you’re better off using USB 3.0 or newer. USB 2.0 devices can also connect to USB 3.0 ports. Both the device and slot should be the same for the most optimal speed. It’s possible to connect USB 3.0 and 3.1 devices to 2.0 slots, but keep in mind that the speed will only reach that of the USB 2.0, which is 480 Mb/s as opposed to the much faster 5 Gb/s and 10 Gb/s. Connecting USB 3.0 and 3.1 to USB 2.0 Slots The wiring inside is also different between the USB generations, as the 2.0 generation of flash drives has only 4 copper wires, while the 3.0 models contain 9 copper wires. If you need to extend the length of these cables, you’ll need to use a hub or other connection. The cable length of USB 2.0 devices can be up to 16’5” at a maximum, but the length for 3.0 devices can only reach a maximum of 9’10”. USB versions up to 2.0 use Unicode as their encoding method, while versions 3.0 and higher have begun using 8b/10b encoding. USB 2.0 and 3.0 both operate at 5V, 1.8A, but USB 3.1 rose it to 20V, 5A, enabling users to power up larger devices. The reason for this is because the 2.0 uses the half duplex data transmission method whereas the 3.0 and newer use the full duplex data transmission method. This means that data can be sent and received simultaneously with the latest flash drives, while data can only be sent or received at a time with 2.0 and older. 3.0 and 3.1 have since improved upon this speed by bringing it up to 5 Gb per second and 10 Gb per second, respectively.Īlso regarding data transfer, the USB 2.0 and older models are only capable of processing data in a single direction at a time, but newer 3.0 and 3.1 models allow for data transfer in both directions. USB 1.0 only had a data transfer speed of 12 Mb per second, but was later sped up to 480 Mb per second with USB 2.0. Get a Quote! Data Transfer Rates and Directions