Today, almost everyone knows USB. However, the USB stick is not that old. It arose out of necessity.
They slumber in drawers or lie tucked away in boxes somewhere in the dark basement: USB cables or USB sticks. The USB port is an ingenious invention. USB stands for Universal Serial Bus and describes a standard for easily connecting a wide variety of electronic devices to a computer. These can be: mouse, keyboard, smartphones, hard drives or cameras. Until the early 1990s, everything had its own plug-in connections. Until one day, Ajay Bhatt’s wife wants to print out a few texts for the children and fails because the printer cannot be connected to the computer.
Israeli businessman Dov Moran experienced a similar story. A customer’s notebook, which contains the only copy of an important business presentation he wants to show the customer, fails. The Israeli is the founder of the company M-Systems. His company develops storage media. Due to the embarrassing notebook story, Dov Moran begins to develop a small stick on which larger amounts of data can be stored. The inventor just doesn’t know how to connect his stick to a computer.
The USB standard initially encountered resistance
At some point Dov Moran finds out about Ajay Bhatt, who works on a universal connection for storage media at the computer chip manufacturer Intel in the USA. The Intel man also presents his idea to the really big computer companies. But Apple and initially Microsoft are not interested in a standardized connection.
There are good reasons for this, after all, customers can – in the truest sense of the word – be better bound to their own products via their own connections. At the time, no one was really interested in whether it was in the interests of customers to use a separate plug for each device. Except for Ajay Bhatt.
With the support of his employer Intel, he is working on his idea. In 1996 the time had come: A consortium of companies Compaq, DEC, Intel, IBM, Microsoft, NEC and Nortel presented the USB port 1.0. Despite initial doubts, Microsoft decided to push ahead with the development of a standard connection.
USB: Fast and easy
The data transfer rate of the first USB standard was 12 megabits per second (Mbit/s), an enormous speed for the time. Today’s Firewire connection achieves 400 Mbit/s.
Speed didn’t matter back then. Much more important: With a USB connection, many other plugs and interfaces are eliminated in one fell swoop. A considerable simplification in dealing with the computer.
In addition, the USB port was already used as a power supply for smaller devices such as a mouse or keyboard.
Also read: USB sticks inserted the wrong way around? Developer explains why
Intel ensures rapid USB spread
The main reason why the USB standard caught on so quickly was that Intel made all the patents and technologies available to the public for further development after it was introduced.
The chip manufacturer allegedly did not act entirely altruistically. Intel hoped that widespread adoption of the USB standard would speed up computer sales. This also happened as a result, whether USB is responsible for it is an open question.
In any case, the USB connection has evolved. The USB 4.0 standard now applies. This allows data to be transmitted at up to 120 gigabits per second, which is faster than via HDMI.
The busy Ajay Bhatt, the inventor of the USB connection, now has well over 100 patents. He didn’t earn any money with the invention. But that doesn’t matter to him at all, he says. He is happy to have helped his company Intel to fame.
In addition, his wife can now print out texts without any problems because the printer works via USB connection. Dov Moran, the Israeli businessman, will also be eternally grateful to Ajay Bhatt. Because his small memory stick would probably never have left the development stage without the standard. So now the world knows what a USB stick is.