USB 2.0: do you need new hardware or is it just a software upgrade?

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cordura21

cordura21

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I have USB 1.0 (or whatever it is, I bought it just as USB). So I need a new card, or is it just drivers/firmware/whatever upgrade?
Oh, and do you know if the new Firewire from Apple works the same way?
Cheers, Andrés
 
Firewire is a different story and not compatible with USB.
USB1(.1) and USB2.0 are compatible. You can use USB2.0 peripherals on a USB1 controller although you it will work at just USB1 speed (12mbit).

So... No you don't have to upgrade to use USB2.0 gear unless you want to take advantage of the higher bandwith of USB2.0
 
hey Christiaan. What I meant about Firewire is to ask whether the new Firewire Apple developed, I think it's called Firewire 800 . I guess it works the same way that USB: it's a hardware upgrade.
 
Maybe I'm revealing my own ignorance about the issues, but I found christiaan's remarks to be a little unclear, so I'll restate it a little bit... straighten me out if I'm wrong here.

USB 2.x is backward-compatible with USB 1.x. That is, an older USB 1.x device can be successfully plugged into a USB 2.x port -- the new interface recognizes the old device.

I'm not sure it's true that a USB 2.x peripheral can be plugged in to a USB 1.x interface successfully. First off, why would the new device be a USB 2.x device unless it was benefitting from the additional bandwith? It would be pointless for a company to redesign an existing product to communicate via USB 2.x when (1) any USB interface, 1.x or 2.x, will recognize it anyway, and (2) the device makes no use of the improvements inherent in USB 2.x. (I wouldn't want to buy a device made by a company that would make such a bad cost/benefit decision.)

Therefore you can assume pretty much any USB 2.x compliant device would be using the increased bandwidth to work properly, and therefore would not work successfully plugged into a USB 1.x interface.

So the statement "No you don't have to upgrade to use USB2.0 gear unless you want to take advantage of the higher bandwith of USB2.0" is kind of senseless, because there wouldn't be a USB 2.x device that did not depend on higher bandwidth for its operation, and if you wanted the device to work the way it's supposed to you would need a USB 2.x port -- meaning you would need to upgrade to use USB 2.x.
 
Al, that's not necessarily true.

I've used several USB 2.0 devices with USB 1.0 controllers...scanners, cameras, and printers. They don't require the extra bandwidth to operate properly, but they would obviously transfer a little quicker if they had it...especially if you had multiple devices on the same controller.

This may not be a rule of thumb, but I wouldn't worry about something not working unless it specifically says "requires USB 2.0 controller." If we were talking about a multichannel soundcard, for instance, I would imagine that you'd find just such a statement somewhere in the literature...since the extra bandwidth would be required.

Slackmaster 2000
 
AlChuck said:

So the statement "No you don't have to upgrade to use USB2.0 gear unless you want to take advantage of the higher bandwith of USB2.0" is kind of senseless, because there wouldn't be a USB 2.x device that did not depend on higher bandwidth for its operation, and if you wanted the device to work the way it's supposed to you would need a USB 2.x port -- meaning you would need to upgrade to use USB 2.x.
Click to expand...

Good point but look at this for instance:
http://www.reviewmakers.com/showdoc.php?review=49
It's a review about a USB2.0 cd writer. For high writespeeds you'd need a USB2.0 controller but it will also work on a USB1.x controller although that would limit the speed to 4-6x or so. That's not very fast but still useful. I mean, a slow cd writer is better than no cd writer at all. :)
 
cordura21 said:
hey Christiaan. What I meant about Firewire is to ask whether the new Firewire Apple developed, I think it's called Firewire 800 . I guess it works the same way that USB: it's a hardware upgrade.
Click to expand...

First time I heard about it, read it and it definatily seems like it: a hardware upgrade (with backward compatibility).
 
I read a little more and it looks like the Firewire upgrade is a little harder. Current Firewire 400 uses either 4 or 6 pin cables. Firewire 800 uses 9 pins. So you need an extra cable/adapter.
 
cordura21 said:
I read a little more and it looks like the Firewire upgrade is a little harder. Current Firewire 400 uses either 4 or 6 pin cables. Firewire 800 uses 9 pins. So you need an extra cable/adapter.
Click to expand...

True. Developments like that are common. It's like being able to connect a 50 pins scsi cdromplayer to a 68 pins controller. You'd need an adapter.
 
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