Short for universal serial bus, USB (pronounced yoo-es-bee) is a plug and play interface that allows a computer to communicate with peripheral and other devices. USB-connected devices cover a broad range; anything from keyboards and mice, to music players and flash drives. For more information on these devices, see our USB devices section.
USB may also be used to send power to certain devices, such as powering smartphones and tablets and charging their batteries. The first commercial release of the Universal Serial Bus (version 1.0) was in January 1996. This industry standard was then quickly adopted by Intel, Compaq, Microsoft, and other companies.