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Whats the Deal With USB1.1 and 2.0 I/O placements??

K

KGB1

Platinum Member
Hello,
I've just been checking some new motherboards (from both AMD and Intel respectively) and I was looking and finding USB 1.1 and 2.0 on the same motherboard. I really don't see the point to this now. I mean Surely USB 2.0 is faster (60Mbits) compared to the previous version. Why do motherboard manufacturers and chipsets designers still include it in their motherboards.

I mean it is Backwards Compatible with old USB devices (ie: mouse, scanner, external cdrw) then why do they have to place the "original" USB in the same place, while bringing the USB 2.0 to the area beneath the parallel and serial ports.. here's a quick example.. click Here! I mean my cases do not support that I/O port configuration. Sure some would argue that the manufacturer will include a I/O faceplate to fit into the back of a case, but usuallly those do not fit on my case (Propietary Configuration issues)

I say let's do away with USB 1.1 and just stick the USB 2.0 sockets where the "original" USB was. Also would it hurt manufacturers to leave out 1 Serial Port? I mean Intel motherboards have only 1. What's the need for 2? Last Serial device I have is a Digital Camera, thats about it.
Instead why dont manufacturers place 2 iEEE 1394 (Firewire) sockets where 1 Serial port USED to be. That would be more ligical. Man sometimes these motherboard manufacturer's need a good kick to the shins before they understand what CUSTOMER'S really want.
 
Well, there are some problems with that. Basically every motherboard has the USB 1.1 connectors on it in the same place, and this design has been around for several years now. So when Motherboard manufacturers make a new mobo with USB 2.0 support, they use basically the same design as other mobos, but add the USB 2.0 connectors to the mobo wherever there is extra space. To replace the entire USB 1.1 setup with a USB 2.0 controller would be a very expensive modification to do; why bother redesigning the whole connection when they can just include a pci-cover with USB 2.0 connectors, while at the same time you have extra USB ports.

Also, although USB 2.0 is backwards compatible, I've read that a USB 2.0 device cannot co-exist with a USB 1.1 device on the same "channel", so you'd be defaulting back to USB 1.1 speeds - that's why there are 2 USB 1.1 ports on 2 separate channels (the 2 connectors by the PS/2 port), and then in new motherboards like the ASUS P4B266, the PCI connector in the back has 4 USB 2.0 ports (each pair is on their own channel).

Just one more correction: USB 2.0 runs at 480 Mbits/s (therefore 60 MB/s - MEGABYTES!)

Edit: I agree with your desire for the USB 2.0 ports to replace the 1.1's, but until USB 2.0 becomes the de-facto standard for USB connection on a computer, it's just wishful thinking!
 
Just to expand a bit on what Jiffylube said...

All current motherboard chipsets support USB 1.1 and NOT USB 2.0 (yeah yeah, some new chipsets yada yada, but what you can buy right-now-today). Motherboards are designed around the chipset manufacturer's "reference" design, which do not have USB 2.0 on them. Then, a separate (NEC?) USB 2.0 chip and circuitry are added to the motherboard on the less-crowded opposite corner from the USB 1.1 connectors.

In the future, USB 2.0 will probably be native to the motherboard chipsets and thus USB 1.1-only will go away.
 
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