Ser/Par-port to USB-based flash-mem-sticks ?

USB-based flash-mems have flooded the market, and are very 
cost effective.  Yet still many machines in use don't have USB ports.

Apparently the USB-based flash-mem-sticks are SCSI based.
Which will be replaced first [by USB]: ser [RS232] or par-port ?

I always thought of the par-port [centronics] as being the most 
'universal', and that's why Iomega chose the make a par-port
external Zip-drive.   Probably the par-port, even with minimum
input lines - 3 I think - is faster than RS232 ?

There could be a lot of users for adaptors for USB-flash.

Including a notebook, of my 4 machines only one has USB-ports.
So a main advantage of USB-flash tranporting data between 
machines is not available.  Diskette is becoming increasingly
unreliable and annoying ?

== Chris Glur.

news@absamail.co.za wrote:

> There could be a lot of users for adaptors for USB-flash.

Only in third-world countries, I suspect. Machines old enough to lack
USB are curbside trash in America. In fact, last trash day I picked up
two Celeron 433MHz systems from local streets (I didn't bother to
rescue the monitors, because they were CRTs).

The parallel port doesn't have enough bandwidth to do USB in realtime,
so your adapter would have to be intelligent enough (=expensive enough)
to handle all the protocol details, buffering, etc.

"larwe" <zwsdotcom@gmail.com> wrote:
>news@absamail.co.za wrote:
>
>> There could be a lot of users for adaptors for USB-flash.
>
>Only in third-world countries, I suspect. Machines old enough to lack
>USB are curbside trash in America. In fact, last trash day I picked up
>two Celeron 433MHz systems from local streets ...
>...
>The parallel port doesn't have enough bandwidth to do USB in realtime,
>...

In addition to that, parallel ports are following
their serial brothers and are quickly disappearing
from modern machines, (laptops in particular,)
contradicting the OP statement:

>>I always thought of the par-port [centronics] as being the most 
>>'universal', and that's why Iomega chose the make a par-port

In fact, in the not so far future, we are more
likely to find serial or parallel ports as
USB adapters than in their original form.

(By the way Lewin, Happy New Year!)

Roberto Waltman wrote:

> In addition to that, parallel ports are following
> their serial brothers and are quickly disappearing

I've been dragged kicking and screaming into the USB emulator age, by
the way. *sigh*

> (By the way Lewin, Happy New Year!)

Happy new one to you too :) How are things with you? Life is weird and
varied here in NYC as usual.

In comp.arch.embedded news@absamail.co.za wrote:

> Which will be replaced first [by USB]: ser [RS232] or par-port ?

Forget about 'will be'.  Both have been replaced by it gradually, and
that process is just about completed.  It's already almost impossible
to find any new peripherals sporting a serial or parallel port.
They're all connected via either USB, IEEE1394, LAN or some wireless
technology, these days.  The bulk of mass market PCs haven't had
classic ports for quite a while, and the exceptions are becoming rarer
by the week.

> I always thought of the par-port [centronics] as being the most 
> 'universal', 

Alas, it's also the least well-specified.  You could always easily
have more trouble with a single parallel port than with all the rest
of the ports of a standard PC combined.

> input lines - 3 I think - is faster than RS232 ?

Faster than a *PC's* usual RS232 port: yes.  Faster than RS232 itself:
no.

> There could be a lot of users for adaptors for USB-flash.

Not really.  The only customer base would be people who haven't bought
a single new peripheral device for their machine in at least 3 years.
All others have upgraded their machines to ones with a USB port.

-- 
Hans-Bernhard Broeker (broeker@physik.rwth-aachen.de)
Even if all the snow were burnt, ashes would remain.