20 years of USB: an interview with its Indian inventor

If you are 40-plus, you will remember the PCs of the early 1990s: their rear walls a mess of multi-sized holes -- a serial port, a printer port, a PS/2 port for mouse and keyboard, a port for the modem, another for the Ethernet cable, yet another for the audio connection.... Then came a small network nirvana: the Universal Serial Bus or USB connector which seemed to work with most PC peripherals -- printer, external storage, music system. Granted, it never seemed to fit the first time you inserted it, but it lived up to its name -- Universal.

Flash forward to the latest avatar of the USB -- the Type C -- first unveiled in January this year at the CES show in Las Vegas. (The ones we use most of the time, today are Type A). The latest 12-inch MacBook from Apple has just one USB Type C port for everything. One size, does indeed fit all... er, almost! We are not yet ready for a Type C-only world and the peripherals at the other end of the PC or tablet or phone cable sport a masala mix of Type A and B including their micro sizes. So be prepared to carry some adapters for some months to come.

Side by side with the evolution of the USB has come bump ups in the speed with which it transfers data. The latest USB 3.0 is twice as fast (at least) as the USB 2.0. But Type C, while exceeding the speed of USB 3, is radically different in shape from all earlier versions. It looks very similar at first glance to the micro USB connector we use with phones and tablets. But there is a huge difference: Type C is flippable -- i.e. you can connect it any way you like because its design is symmetrical -- removing the one big hassle of the old USB connectors.

The Type C also handles more power up to 20 volts and 5 amperes ( or 100 watts). This means it can be used to charge almost all devices -- even a laptop typically needs only 60 watts. Speed-wise at 10 GBPS it is rated at twice the speed of a Type A USB 3 cable. And most useful of all, it is bidirectional -- ie both ends look the same. Caveat: Since we have to live with Type A for some years, many of the new cables will have Type C at one end and Type A at the other to connect legacy equipment.

But the push has come to shove -- connector-wise -- and as we slide into 2016, we can expect to increasingly work in a new era of zippy, hassle-free connectors that do it all: power-up devices and transfer data, while they -- literally -- link everything to everything

The 'Connection Man'

For the man who principally invented the Universal Serial Bus 20 years ago this month, the challenge was simple -- and personal: how to ensure his wife could negotiate the maze of ports in a PC and connect a printer properly, without having to call for assistance. It was not a trivial task --with different printers needing different ports.

Ajay Bhatt, then with Intel, decided to try and create a single solution to replace serial and parallel ports. In November 1995, his work, backed by half a dozen patents, resulted in the USB 1.0 Release. Intel decided to issue the standard, free of licensing fees for all makers -- which is why the USB has become the world's most ubiquitous connector -- there are more than 10 billion out there. It is also the reason, Bhat never made a paisa out of his invention. But he has no regrets.

An electronics engineering graduate from the Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda (now Vadodara) and an MS from City University New York, he joined Intel in 1990. Currently Intel Fellow and Chief Architect for the PC Client Platform Group, Bhatt wanted to be an architect --literally --and even attended classes in the arts department of Baroda University, before deciding it was not for him and switching to engineering

I spoke on the phone to Oregon, US, with Ajay Bhatt last week as he looked back at two decades of the USB. "Its use has exceeded our expectations", he said, "It's been an amazing road -- and by and large, the vision of a single connector for all forms of the PC has been realised". He is deeply involved in refining the standards for Type C and is excited at the possibilities of USB connections powering up devices as well as carrying data.

His core work at Intel today is on future client platforms and he told me the day is not far off, when PCs will boot up and shut down in 2 seconds and can be powered wirelessly. In fact, the man who radically simplified wired connections, is prepared for the day when everything the USB does, will be done -- wirelessly!