Ira Wallin wrote:
>
> If I have 2 USB ports, from a reality point-of-view, how many devices can I plug in without sacrificing performance?


   Depends on the demands of the devices and whether they are going to
be used concurrently or at different times. The current USB version
supports up to 127 devices, but for our real world usage we must look at
the bandwidth demands of USB devices. USB supports 1.5 megabytes per
second transfer rate (that's 12 megabits per second). That is fairly
slow compared to other protocols: (See question 1 here:
http://USB.ORG/faq/ans2.html#q8).

  The new USB 2.0 will increase that bandwidth to 480 megabits per
second (see: http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB20000427S0007). When
that speed increase (40 times faster) hits the market we'll see a lot
more use of USB.

Later,


Russell Smith
Edtech Consultant, Journalist
Region 14 ESC Abilene
http://camalott.com/~rssmith
mailto:[log in to unmask]

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