Overview for USB

Universal Serial Bus (USB) provides a bidirectional, isochronous, dynamically attachable serial interface for adding peripheral devices such as game controllers, serial and parallel ports, and scanners on a single bus.

For PC 97, USB provides a fast, low-cost solution that is strongly recommended for communications and input devices. The following are the key design features for USB under the Microsoft Windows operating systems:

• For PC 97, USB is required on all systems that receive the "Designed for Microsoft Windows" logo.
• All USB components in a PC 97 system must comply with the USB Specification and related USB device class specifications.
• The host controller must comply with OpenHCI or UHCI.
• Microsoft provides support for USB using the Microsoft Win32 Driver Model (WDM). Hardware vendors who implement USB solutions for devices can use the drivers provided by Microsoft or can create minidrivers to exploit any additional unique hardware features.