When USB ports were introduced in the 1990s, the world of computers and electronics was completely different from today, especially in terms of ports. As there were a large number of different types of ports and standards that were rarely compatible with each other, and when you want to buy a new accessory, you must make sure that your computer has a port that supports it, and vice versa, where the new computer must have the ports to run your old accessories.
The original purpose of USB ports was to end the chaos at the time and establish one basic standard for ports, and although many tried to resist this at first, USB succeeded in becoming the recognized primary port around the world, and many new computers began to abandon all their ports except for it.
But although USB ports have united the technical field in principle, they still cause some problems due to their many different formats and standards, and in this topic we will cover one of the least known ports among users: USB-B.
What are USB-B ports and why are they there?
When the USB standards were first established, it was assumed that the port might supply power through one of its wires, and this idea is why you can connect a flash drive, an external hard drive or a mouse to a computer and it will work without providing it with an external power. So with power there was a problem for the designers of the standard: How do you distinguish between a device that supplies energy and a device that receives energy?
The problem with having a port that includes sending energy through it is that connecting two power sources together means the possibility of major electrical problems and damage to parts, and for this purpose it was decided to make two completely different types of ports: USB-A, as the ports you see in computers everywhere and have the well-known rectangular shape, and on the side The other is USB-B which has a square shape and is unknown to most people.
The assumption was that USB-B ports meant that the device was receiving power but not sending it through the port, ie it was an accessory rather than a primary device. To this end, the port was supposed to spread in accessories such as printers, digital cameras, and perhaps mobile phones and others.
Why don’t most people know the USB-B port?
There are actually several reasons, but the most important are only two:
Most of the accessories came with non-detachable cables
Think of a mouse, keyboard, and even many USB-connected printers and scanners. Most of these products actually have a cable built in, meaning they don’t have a USB port at all, so you don’t need to use USB-B ports in the first place.
The accessories that came with the cables were small
With its square shape and relatively large size, the placement of the USB-B port has been a problem in many small peripheral devices, and thus many products such as mice, keyboards and flashes have abandoned it originally, while devices that require a cable use different ports of their own so that they are Smaller, as are the old ports of Nokia phones, those of Sony Ericson phones, and even the port used in the first generations of iPhone phones.
In sum, the traditional form of the USB-B port was only suitable for limited uses, and with the exception of printers and some other devices, the port was so rare that many people used computers for many years without realizing that this port even existed.
USB-B ports are known, but not the original
With the gradual development of technology, many computer accessories became smaller, and as a result there was a need for a smaller version of the ports, which produced both the Mini USB standards at the beginning, and later the Micro USB standards. These standards were only scaling, meaning that there were versions A and B of these ports.
Of course, with USB-A ports being used primarily in computers, where there is no problem with the port being large (in fact, it is preferred for the purpose of durability and ease of entry), Mini USB-A and Micro USB-A ports were quite rare, but on the other hand, ports spread Micro USB-B is huge, and even the Micro USB-B port has been the standard port of choice for phones since 2009 and has been the dominant port until recently.
What regarding USB-C ports?
Recently, it has become clear that the future is USB-C ports. They offer faster data transfer speeds thanks to a larger number of wires, are smaller in size and solve the problem that still bothers everyone around the world: USB is inserted in the wrong direction, it is reversible and does not You only have one direction.
In contrast to the previous case where USB-A and USB-B ports were different ports, it is possible to use USB-C in any device you can think of, whether it is the power supply or its receiver only, as the standard requires devices to “negotiate with each other” to select the device which will send energy.
Since now, USB-C is the standard for phones and tablets (excluding iPhones for now at least), and more computers are including the port as an additional option, or even as the only option in some cases, with the gradual decline of USB-A ports as well.
