Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard that allows data exchange and delivery of power between many types of electronics. It specifies its architecture, in particular its physical interface, and communication protocols for data transfer and power delivery to and from hosts, such as personal computers, to and from peripheral devices, e.g. displays, keyboards, and mass storage devices, and to and from intermediate hubs, which multiply the number of a host's ports.
Various legacy USB and related connectors (left to right): USB Micro-B plug, proprietary UC-E6 plug, USB Mini-B plug, Standard-A-like receptacle (non-compliant), Standard-A plug, Standard-B plug. Shown with a centimeter ruler.
USB logo on the head of a standard Type-A (Standard-A) plug
A USB 2.0 PCI expansion card
USB 3.2 Gen 1(x1), Standard-A connectors labelled as USB 3.1 Gen 1 – originally simply named USB 3.0 and marketed as SuperSpeed USB (by USB 3.0 specification) and later named as USB 3.2 Gen 1x1 and marketed as SuperSpeed USB 5Gbps by the USB 3.2 specification
In computing, an interface is a shared boundary across which two or more separate components of a computer system exchange information. The exchange can be between software, computer hardware, peripheral devices, humans, and combinations of these. Some computer hardware devices, such as a touchscreen, can both send and receive data through the interface, while others such as a mouse or microphone may only provide an interface to send data to a given system.
Hardware interfaces of a laptop computer: Ethernet network socket (center), to the left a part of the VGA port, to the right (upper) a display port socket, to the right (lower) a USB-A socket.
