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The Universal Serial Bus (USB) was designed from the ground up to be easy for end users, with no user configuring required in hardware or software. It is a fast and flexible interface for connecting devices to computers. The interface is versatile enough to use with standard peripherals as well as more specialized devices.

USB is very different from the legacy interfaces it's replacing. It may use any of four transfer types and three speeds. With USB, a single host controls communications with many peripherals. The host handles most of the complexity, so the peripherals' electronics can be relatively simple and inexpensive. The USB is specified to be an industry-standard extension to the PC architecture with a focus on peripherals that enable consumer and business applications.

In January 1996 Release 1.0 of the USB specification followed several years of development and preliminary releases. Release 1.1 is dated September 1998 and fixed problems identified in release 1.0. USB Release 2.0 dated from April 2000 with a new high-speed option. An Engineering Change Notice in December 2000 provided corrections and defined a new mini-B connector.

Version 2.0 was a big step in USB's evolution. A 40-times increase was found to be feasible, for a bus speed of 480 Megabits per second making USB more attractive for peripherals such as printers, scanners, drives, and even video.

The copyright on the USB 2.0 specification is assigned jointly to seven corporations, all heavily involved with PC hardware or software:

Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Lucent, Microsoft, NEC, and Philips. All have agreed to make the specification available without charge.

The USB Implementers Forum's website has the latest versions of all USB specifications and other information for both developers and end users.