By bringing all peripheral connectivity "outside the box," and eliminating confusion over things like dip switches and IRQ settings, the new standard will streamline the time consuming chore of installing computer peripherals for home and business users, maintained Intel Corp.'s Jim Pappas, program director for the USB association, speaking at the press conference, which was attended by Newsbytes. At the same time, the risk of "system crashes" will be minimized, according to Pappas.

USB will also overcome the "limitations" of today's serial and parallel ports, the program director told the press. Peripherals will be "detected and automatically configured" as soon as they are plugged in.

This "hot attach" feature, together with "USB hubbing" and "hot detach," will provide better support for keyboards, printers, and modems, as well as for emerging product categories such as digital cameras, "forced feedback" joysticks, CTI (computer telephony integration), "multi-user games," VR (virtual reality) hardware, and the Universal Internet Connection, he contended.

Products displayed in the USB booth included IBM's new, USBcompliant PC 300 business line-up, plus eight upcoming USB peripherals: joysticks from both Microsoft and Logitech; speakers and a "USB PC monitor/hub" from Philips; a game pad from Alps; keyboards from Key Tronic and Cherry; and Mitel Corp.'s "USB telephone." Meanwhile, Intel showed products for designing and building USB PCs and peripherals.

Microsoft will also support USB through its 32-bit Windows OS (operating systems), said Mike Glass, a Microsoft technical evangelist, also during the press conference. From Microsoft's perspective, the new standard provides the benefit of guidelines for different USB "device classes," with each class of peripherals sharing common drivers, according to Glass.

Microsoft's Windows 95 and Windows NT will add support for the various device classes in quarterly increments, he reported. The first USB device class to be supported by Microsoft is "USB Human Input Devices," a category that includes keyboards, mice, and gaming devices.

Microsoft will then support the following classes of USB peripherals, in consecutive order: USB Imaging (still and motion cameras, scanners); USB Communication (analog and digital modems, phones, and ISDN); USB Audio (speakers, microphones, and sound dongles); and USB Monitor Control.

Mitel's upcoming "USB telephone" will be aimed at saving time for self-employed "knowledge workers" and work-at-homers by combining telephone and traditional PC functionality within a "single, integrated" computer-based platform, asserted Mitel's Bill Beck.

Downsizing and self-employment are continuing to grow, while at the same time, more corporate employees are taking work home with them, according to Beck. As a result, the US telecommuter market is projected to rise from under 5 million households in 1991 to 30 million households in the year 2000, he noted, pointing to figures from the Gartner Group.

Using statistics from Dataquest and Intel, the USB Implementers Forum projects sales of 30 million USB-compliant PCs in 1997, 80 million units in 1998, and 100 million in 1999, Pappas said, also during the event.

The best comparison to USB in terms of market growth is PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect), he told the journalists. But USB will grow at a rate "three times as fast" as PCI, according to Pappas.

Pappas also made an effort to clear up some commonly held misconceptions about USB. "USB is not a LAN (local area network)," he remarked. "It is an easy way to attach (peripherals) to PCs."

The first USB-compliant PCs will come with a USB port which supports only a single USB device, Pappas added. Ultimately, however, through hubbing, USB will support up to 127 peripheral devices.

Also, USB and IEEE 1394, another emerging standard for peripheral connectivity, are "complementary" rather than "competing" technologies, Pappas told the group.

USB is targeted at "low-cost, high-volume applications." IEEE 1394, on the other hand, will be supported by higher-end devices like DV (digital video) camcorders and "DVD VCRs (videocassette recorders)."

Microsoft's Glass said that Microsoft will perform all USB and 1394 development in WDM (Win32 Driver Model), a common model for Windows 95 and Windows NT which is based on a 32-bit NT-styled device driver architecture for reduced latency and greater "robustness."

Late in the third quarter, Microsoft plans to ship the "USB Supplement for OEM (original equipment manufacturer) Software Refresh 2," supporting input and imaging devices. In December, he added, Microsoft will release the first USB support for end users through the Windows NT Service Pack.

In a demo for Newsbytes at the close of the press event, Ernest C. Capone, business development manager for Mitel, showed how his company's upcoming "USB phone" will work in conjunction with Microsoft Mail and TAPI (telephony application programming interface) to provide a "personal agent" for handling voice-mail, together with faxes and e-mail. Newsbytes saw how the new digital phone-and-software system will supply voice call management with capabilities somewhat similar to those of a "smart phone," such as on-screen message forwarding and deletion, auto dialing, and call screening.

But in addition to saving time and cutting down on the number of devices needed in the home office, the USB plug-in phone will extend PC-based advantages such as greater "power," programmability, and storage capacity, according to Capone. Another feature now in the works is speech-enablement, the Mitel exec told Newsbytes.

(Jacqueline Emigh/19960624/Reader Contacts: Universal Serial Bus, 503-264-0590; Mitel Corp., 613-592-2122; Press Contacts: Susan Shaw, USB, 408-448-4935; Jeanne Forbis, USB, 602-554-2075; Robert L. Rinklin, G.S. Schwartz & Co. Inc. for Mitel, 212-725-4000)