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Chapter 2: About the Printer
About the Universal Serial Bus
The Universal Serial Bus (USB) is a peripheral bus for personal computers that was first released in January 1996. Since
that time, virtually all Intel Architecture personal computers have the hardware to support USB, and a large number of
computers exist that have both the hardware and software support required to interface with USB peripherals.
Advantages of USB connections
USB has a number of advantages over Application
Compatible Escape Commands connection schemes (e.g.,
serial RS-232C, parallel IEEE 1284). These advantages
include:
• High Speed: up to 12 MB/second for high-speed
devices.
• Plug and Play: Devices are automatically recognized
and configured at installation.
• Hot plug: Bus supports installation and removal of
devices with the power applied.
• Up to 127 devices: One host can support up to 127
devices with the use of hubs.
• "Free ports": Most PC architecture machines contain
two USB ports in the base hardware.
These advantages have become attractive to the POS
industry for a couple of reasons.
Advantages of the CognitiveTPG USB solution
CognitiveTPG provides two USB solutions. If your
application is designed to talk to the printer as an RS-232C
device, we offer an RS-232C Emulation USB (Comm
Class) Driver. If your application is capable of talking to
a USB device, we offer a Printer Class USB Driver.
A760 Two-Color Thermal/Impact Hybrid Printer: User Guide
Additional POS devices. Some POS systems are required
to host more peripherals than can be supported by two RS-
232C ports typical in a platform. With the addition of one
(or two) USB connectors, the platform can now support
the additional devices that had previously required a serial
port expander card.
Higher bandwidths. New devices coming into use have
bandwidth requirements that are higher than the bandwidth
that can be supported on Application Compatible Escape
Commands interfaces. These devices include image
scanners and printers. As the speed and capability of
POS printers increases, the performance of the printer
in an application can become limited by the speed of the
communications interface. USB provides ample bandwidth
to support current and future POS printer requirements.
The RS-232C Emulation USB (Comm Class) and the
Printer Class USB drivers are compatible with PCs that
run Windows XP/Vista/7/8.
189-9200303 Rev. E
12/2012
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