USB is now version 3.0. At a glance if we notice almost no difference between USB 2.0 and USB 3.0. Physically they are the same size. At a glance that distinguishes one USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 is USB 2.0 has white bearings while USB 3.0 has blue pads.

Is USB 2.0 connected to USB 3.0 or vice versa? Or maybe the question arises what is the difference between USB 1.0, USB 2.0 and USB 3.0?

USB is not a Urban Service Boundary, United State Bank, or Unicode Subset Bitfields. But the USB that we are talking about here is Universal Serial Bus. Understanding USB is the standard serial bus for the connecting device. Allows the computer to the device or other devices such as flash, external HD, modem, and others.

In general, USB 3.0 has a higher speed of around 3.2Gbps (400MB / s) and in theory can reach 4.8Gpbs. This speed is 6 to 10 times faster than USB 2.0. because USB 3.0 has adopted a two-way data transfer technology (full duplex), so it can read and write simultaneously (simultaneously).

Another advantage of USB 3.0 is more power-efficient because of the original voltage of 4.4V to 4V and the current is increased to 150mA. USB 3.0 can be used 4-6 devices at a time. USB 3.0 also supports idle, sleep and suspend so power management is better.

Devices using USB 2.0 can be connected to USB 3.0 but USB 3.0 devices can not connect to USB 2.0. For example we have a USB 2.0 flash and we have a USB 3.0 computer, it can be used with the best USB 2.0 performance. But if we flash USB 3.0 it turns out our computer only available USB 2.0 port then surely the computer can not detect the flash.

From the advantages of USB 3.0, it still leaves the shortcomings. This disadvantage is ultimately the advantage of USB 2.0.

USB 3.0 lacks include:

  • Not supported by Windows XP operating system. But already supported Windows 7 and Linux.
  • Cable length up to 3 meters while USB 2.0 can reach 5 meters. (this shortage can be handled by adding a USB Hub.
  • Data transmission speeds should not reach optimal speed on all devices. For example the disk disk is limited to the speed of the disk spinning.

If we disassemble the physical cable from both USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 equally have 4 cables. But from the side of USB 2.0 cable jack plus 4 cable lines for USB 3.0. So USB 3.0 has 9 cables.