7197 Owner’s Manual Chapter 2: Setting Up and Using the Printer
15 November 2002
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 legacy connection schemes (e.g., serial RS-232).
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.
Additional POS devices. Some POS systems are required to host more peripherals than
can be supported by two RS-232 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 legacy 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.
Advantages of the NCR USB Solution
NCR has eliminated any cost associated with porting applications to USB by
implementing a USB solution that simulates standard serial communications in Windows
98 (SR2), Windows 98 USB Hot Patch, ID: Q236934, and NT 4.0 (Service Pack 3 or higher)
and Windows 2000. Application developers need only redirect their software to the
virtual serial ports created by the NCR USB solution to use the printer.
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