Founded 1995 | ||
Similar PCI‑SIG, MIPI Alliance, Bluetooth Special Interest G | ||
The USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) is a non-profit organization to promote and support the Universal Serial Bus. Its main activities are the promotion and marketing of USB, Wireless USB, USB On-The-Go, and the maintenance of the specifications, as well as a compliance program.
It was formed in 1995 by the group of companies that developed USB. Notable members include Hewlett-Packard, NEC, Microsoft, Apple Inc., Intel, and Agere Systems.
The working committees within USB-IF are:
The USB-IF web caters for developers who can freely sign up to the developer web-forums and access documentation, however to join a working group one has to work for a member company or register as a member. The developer forums cover USB hardware and software development and is not an end-user forum.
In 2014 they announced a USB connection called "USB Type-C". It transfers data with rates up to 10 Gbit/s and charges devices with up to 100 Watts.
Obtaining a vendor ID
A vendor ID is necessary for obtaining a certification of compliance from the USB-IF. The USB-IF is responsible for issuing USB vendor IDs to product manufacturers. The cost for issuing this number is US$5,000. Additionally, the use of a trademarked USB logo to identify certified devices requires license fee of US$3,500 for a 2-year term. Some microcontroller manufacturers offer a free or low cost sublicense of their vendor ID for development/testing and limited production (generally under 10,000 units). Vendors offering this free service include:
Alternatively, many members of the open source community promote the use of USB VID 0xF055 (visually similar to 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.