| USB Implementers Forum | |
| Abbreviation: | USB-IF |
| Status: | 501(c)(6) professional association |
| Founded: | [1] |
| Tax Id: | 93-1296452[2] |
| Headquarters: | Beaverton, Oregon, U.S. |
| Coordinates: | 45.4921°N -122.8329°W |
| Employees: | 0 |
| Employees Year: | 2015 |
| Volunteers: | 57 |
| Volunteers Year: | 2015 |
| Revenue: | $4,789,113 |
| Revenue Year: | 2015 |
| Expenses: | $4,579,090 |
| Expenses Year: | 2015 |
| Leader Name: | Jeff Ravencraft[3] |
| Leader Title: | President, Chief Operating Officer |
USB Implementers Forum, Inc. (USB-IF) is a nonprofit organization created to promote and maintain USB (Universal Serial Bus), a set of specifications and transmission procedures for a type of cable connection that has since become used widely for electronic equipment. Its main activities are currently the promotion and marketing of USB, Wireless USB, USB On-The-Go, and the maintenance of standards and specifications for the related devices, as well as a compliance program.
The USB-IF was initiated on December 5, 1995, by the group of companies that was developing USB, which was made available first during 1996. The founding companies of USB-IF were Compaq, Digital Equipment Corporation, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, NEC and Nortel. Notable current members include HP, NEC, Microsoft, Apple Inc., Intel, and Broadcom.
The working committees within USB-IF are:
The USB-IF web caters to developers who may register freely for the developer web-forums and access documentation. To be part of a working group, however, a person has to work for a member company or register as a member. The developer forums regulate the development of the USB connector, of other USB hardware, and of USB software; they are not end-user forums.
In 2014, the USB-IF announced the availability of USB-C designs. USB-C connectors can transfer data with rates as much as 10 Gbit/s and provides as much as 100 watts of power.[4]
In 2015, the seven-person board of directors, with Jeff Ravencraft as USB-IF President and Chief Operating Officer, consisted of representatives of Apple Inc., HP Inc., Intel Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, Renesas Electronics, STMicroelectronics, and Texas Instruments.[2]
In 2020, USB-IF announced updated USB Device Class Definition for MIDI Devices, Version 2.0, for MIDI 2.0 devices.[5]
A vendor identification is necessary for obtaining a certification of compliance from the USB-IF. The USB-IF is responsible for issuing USB vendor identification numbers to product manufacturers. The cost for issuing this number is US$6,000 per year. Additionally, the use of a trademarked USB logo to identify certified devices requires a license fee of US$3,500 for a 2-year term.[6] Some microcontroller manufacturers offer a free or low cost sublicense of their vendor ID for development/testing and limited production (generally less than 10,000 units). Vendors offering this free service include:
Alternatively, many members of the open source community promote the use of USB VID 0xF055 (which looks when written like "FOSS") for open-source hardware projects. Although this VID is not registered to any company (as of October 2015), the USB-IF have not released any confirmation about reserving it for this particular purpose.[16] [17]
