HP Visualize c360 Supplementary Manual page 11

The Non-Uses of USB
Marginal Uses
• Scanners (USB max'd out for color above FAX resolution [200 dpi])
• LAN and high-end cable modems (USB is max'd-out for 10Mbit LAN)
• CD-ROM, CDR, DVD (USB max'd-out at a mere "4x" CD-ROM)
• MO, tape (USB already too slow for DAT, DLT and other streaming formats)
• Instrumentation (USB no faster than HP-IB), PCMCIA (PC Card) adaptors
• Character-mode terminals, home appliance control (cable length)
Despite this, the industry is leaping to USB from Parallel, SCSI and dedicated ISA or PCI
cards, purely based on the lower cost and ease of support. If IEEE-1394 (Apple
"FireWire") becomes established on the PC, they'll jump again.
Contra indicated Uses
• Hard disks, external or internal
• Broadcast-quality video, HD video of any kind
• Studio-quality multi-track audio
IEEE-1394 had been capturing some of these applications and we were unlikely to see
USB used (rationally) for any of them. Unfortunately, since the iMac lacks external
ports faster than USB, irrational USB devices are already appearing.