
The USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) introduced the USB 2.0 standard on April 27, 2000, meaning this port speed is turning 25 years old today. The USB 2.0 standard pushed this interface to the mainstream, especially as it delivered a blazingly fast transfer speed (for its time) of 480 Mbps with its Hi-Speed USB. This was over 40 times faster than the 12 Mbps limit of USB 1.1 and was even faster than Apple’s first implementation of its proprietary FireWire 400 connector. More importantly, it was cheaper to implement than the latter, making it more attractive to motherboard manufacturers.