The personal computer has evolved into a powerful multimedia appliance over the last several years. Spurred by such advances as powerful Intel microprocessors, advanced graphics subsystems, and highly capable software, the mainstream portion of the personal computer market segment has made impressive advances in multimedia capabilities. However, the PC has also continued to be plagued by an Achilles heel--its unfriendly I/O subsystems. Users have continued to struggle with cryptic elements of the PC like IRQ, DMA, and I/O Addresses. The Universal Serial Bus (USB) should go a long way towards solving many of these problems and offers powerful new multimedia capabilities to help make the PC the ubiquitous multimedia appliance.
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