Yingbo Hu and Ralph Moore
Micro Digital

Universal Serial Bus (USB) is a connectivity specification that provides ease of use, expandability, and good performance for the end user. It is one of the most successful interconnects in computer history. Originally released in 1995 for PCs, it now is expanding into use by embedded systems and is replacing older interfaces such as serial and parallel interfaces as the preferred communication link. This article has been written as a tutorial on the many ways that USB can be employed in embedded systems.