USB Ports - FZ-L1

Panasonic Toughbook FZ-L1 USB Ports

Panasonic Toughbook FZ-L1(A) mk1 - Micro-USB 2.0 x 1

Universal Serial Bus (USB) is a universal plug and play interface that is used by computers to communicate to devices like printers, scanners, digital cameras, external hard drives, and flash memory drives. USB is a universal cross-platform technology that is supported by most operating systems. USB comes in several connection types and multiple speed standards.

USB CONNECTION TYPES

USB Type-A: The most common type of connector in use is USB Type-A. It has the familiar standard flat, rectangular interface that you find on the end of most USB cables and flash memory drives. Your Panasonic Toughbook FZ-L1 has multiple USB Type-A ports for connecting to peripherals. You will also see this connector referred to as USB-A.

USB Type-B: This type of connector was mostly used for printers. It is almost square with a small notch to ensure it is connected properly. USB Type-B is not very common anymore as many of the devices that use this connector have moved on to smaller connection types or have gone wireless.

Mini-USB: This type of connector is smaller and was the standard for mobile devices before Micro-USB. Some cameras still use this connection type along with some gaming systems and music players.

Micro-USB: Many mobile and portable devices still use this type of connector. It is smaller than Mini-USB but is slowly being replaced by USB-C. Many smart phones, tablets, gaming peripherals, and USB battery packs still use this connection type.

USB Type-C: This is the newest USB connection type and is quickly being adopted by many manufacturers. It boasts higher transfer speeds and is capable of multiple device use. Many of the newest laptops and mobile devices use this connection type, some of them exclusively on their products. You will also see this connector referred to as USB-C.

USB SPEEDS

Regardless of the type of connector your device has, they all use the same standards for speed. There are multiple standards for speed which are:

USB 1.x - This was the original standard created in 1996. The data rate had a low speed of 1.5 Mbits/s while the full speed topped out at 12 Mbit/s. USB 1.x hasn’t been used in a Panasonic Toughbook for many years.

USB 2.0 - Launched in 2001, USB 2.0 came on the scene with speeds up to 40 times faster than its predecessor USB 1.x. Transfer speeds top out at 480Mbit/s. Many devices today still come with USB 2.0 connectors.

USB 3.0 - This standard launched in 2011 and can be easily identified by the blue coloring of the port and on the connector. Transfer speeds can run as high as 5Gbit/s.

USB 3.1 - This standard doubled the speed of USB 3.0 to 10GBit/s and is the fastest speed you can attain for a USB Type-A and Type-B connection types. It is also available for USB-C connection types.

USB 3.2 - Only available for USB-C connection types, it doubles the speed yet again of the USB standard to 20Gbit/s.

USB 4.0 - This standard is just now becoming available in 2019 and will only be available for USB-C connection types. Because it is new, don’t expect widespread use of this standard immediately but with transfer speeds of up to 40Gbit/s, expect it to be adopted fairly quickly.

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