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USB (Universal Serial Bus) is a fast, versatile interface for connecting peripherals and devices to a computer. Rarely does a computer standard get a fresh start and design. Each new design is usually configured to be compatible with the preexisting interface and devices so there are products on the market that can use the design and users do not have a large overhead when switching interfaces. There came a point when the inconvenience of the preexisting method outweighed that of the interface design change. This was the birth place of USB. USB was designed from the ground up, with speed, ease of use, cost, and reliability in mind.
In the past, each new interface was the work of a single company, but this gave that company unprecedented control over that interface, allowing them to forbid others from using the interface or charging fees. USB was created under a new organization of seven corporations including: Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, Lucent, Intel, Microsoft, NEC, and Philips. All seven of these corporations had a common goal: to define an external expansion bus which makes adding peripherals to a PC as easy as possible for the user and versatile as possible for the developer.
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