USB, stands for Universal Serial Bus, was designed to standardize the method peripherals are integrated with PCs. It enables communication as well as carrier power. It has largely replaced interfaces such as parallel ports and serial ports.
The USB standard started with USB 1.0 and now are at USB 3.2. We can notice exponential increase the bandwidth that each new variant can support. The most popular standards in USB are the USB 2.0 and the USB 3.0. The USB 2.0 supports a bandwidth of 480Mbps whereas USB 3.0 supports a bandwidth of 5Gbps.
As we can evidently notice, USB 3.0 is substantially faster than USB 2.0. The scope of this article is to list out the differences.
1. Data Transfer Rates
USB 2.0 transfer speed is 480 Mbps whereas the USB 3.0 transfer speed is 5 Gbps. This means the USB 3.0 is 10 times faster than USB 2.0.
USB 2.0 offers a one-way communication path. This means data are sent and received via the same pathway, which means, either camera sends or receives data at one point of time. But, it does not do both. The signalling method can be referred to as polling method.
Whereas, USB 3.0 has 2 separate unidirectional data paths, one for sending the data and the other for receiving the data. The signalling method can be referred to as asynchronous method. This essentially increases the bandwidth.
2. Power Usage
USB 2.0 is capable of providing upto 500mA current, whereas, USB 3.0 is capable of providing upto 900mA.
3. Number of wires
USB 2.0 has 4 number of wires. On the other hand, USB 3.0 has 9 wires. These additional wires enables the increase in the bandwidth by providing 2 way communication in a simultaneous manner.
4. Cable
The cable that supports USB 3.0 has additional wires to enable higher bandwidth and higher power. It is usually indicate with blue color in the connector.
The USB 2.0 cables can guarantee consistent data rates, especially for higher bandwidth requirements, up to a length of 5m. Beyond that we would have to add repeaters or powered hubs to ensure integrity.
The USB 2.0 cables can guarantee consistent data rates, especially for higher bandwidth requirements, up to a length of 4m. Beyond that we would have to add repeaters or powered hubs to ensure integrity.
To summarize the difference
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Based on your application and use case, engineers at Regami shall be able to guide you with the selection of the right interface for your camera.
Please let us know if you have any queries.
Cheers
Sarvesh Rajagopal
