From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

USB Implementers Forum

Organization that supports the USB standard

Field	Value
name	USB Implementers Forum
logo	USB Implementers Forum logo.svg
abbreviation	USB-IF
status	501(c)(6) professional association
founded
tax_id	93-1296452
headquarters	Beaverton, Oregon, U.S.
coordinates
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
leader_title	President, Chief Operating Officer
website

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:

Device Working Group
Compliance Committee
Marketing Committee

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.

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.

In 2020, USB-IF announced updated USB Device Class Definition for MIDI Devices, Version 2.0, for MIDI 2.0 devices.

Vendor ID issuance

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. 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:

Dream S.A.S.
Energy Micro
FTDI
Luminary Micro
Microchip
NXP
Silicon Labs
STMicroelectronics
Texas Instruments 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.

References

"Members". USB Implementers Forum, Inc..
"[http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2015/931/296/2015-931296452-0d951081-9O.pdf Form 990: Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax]". ''USB Implementers Forum''. [[Guidestar]]. December 31, 2015.
"[http://www.usb.org/about/ About]". ''USB Implementers Forum''. Retrieved February 5, 2018.
"USB 3.0 Promoter Group Announces USB Type-C Connector Ready for Production".
(January 2026). "USB-IF Publishes USB Device Class Specification for MIDI Devices v2.0".
[http://www.usb.org/developers/vendor/ How to get a vendor ID from the USB-IF]
"Dream S.A.S. USB Vendor ID Application".
[http://forum.energymicro.com/topic/59-how-can-i-obtain-a-usb-pid/ Energy Micro Application for USB PID Sublicense] {{Webarchive. link. (16 October 2012)
"FTDI USB Vendor ID Application".
[http://www.luminarymicro.com/products/luminary_micro_usb_vid_sublicense.html Luminary Micro (now part of Texas Instruments) USB Vendor ID Application]
[http://www.microchip.com/usblicensing/ Application for Sub-License to Microchip Universal Serial Bus Vendor ID]
[http://www.nxp.com/news/press-releases/2011/11/nxp-delivers-industry-first-arm-cortex-m0-microcontrollers-with-integrated-usb-drivers.html NXP to offer global USB Vendor ID program]
[http://www.silabs.com/products/mcu/Pages/request-PID.aspx Silicon Labs USB Vendor ID Application]
"STMicroelectronics USB Vendor ID Application".
[http://focus.ti.com/en/download/mcu/application_for_sublicense.pdf Texas Instruments USB Vendor ID Application]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20131022154839/http://hackaday.com/2013/10/22/usb-implementers-forum-says-no-to-open-source/ USB IMPLEMENTERS FORUM SAYS NO TO OPEN SOURCE]
By. (2015-04-03). "USB PIDs For All".

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

usb organizations-established-in-1995 501(c)(6)-nonprofit-organizations

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about USB Implementers Forum — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report