What is faster between USB1 and parallel connector

  • Thread starter Thread starter Sophie Prunelle
  • Start date Start date
S

Sophie Prunelle

Hello

So 5 year printer have both USB1 and parallel connector

How choice, and what is faster?
 
Hello

So 5 year printer have both USB1 and parallel connector

How choice, and what is faster?
Click to expand...


If you have a choice, go with the USB. The parallel connection can be
far less reliable.
 
Al said:
If you have a choice, go with the USB. The parallel connection can be
far less reliable.
Click to expand...
ERhhhhhhhhhhhhh, HUH.

--

Rev. G.G. Willikers
(Founder, Custodian & Janitor of the Shrine of HOoMSJ)


"Sir, I am unaware of any such activity or operation - nor would
I be disposed to discuss such an operation if it did in
fact exist, sir."
 
Sophie Prunelle said:
Hello

So 5 year printer have both USB1 and parallel connector

How choice, and what is faster?
Click to expand...

The printer is probably much slower than either, I would go with whatever
cable you happen to have. If you must buy one then buy a usb cable. I've
been running a Canon S520 ever since it was first released on a parallel
port and it works just fine, shared on a network with 2 other pc's using it.
Either is just as reliable.
 
Sophie Prunelle said:
So 5 year printer have both USB1 and parallel connector

How choice, and what is faster?
Click to expand...

There's more than one thing called "parallel". It depends on the modes
your parallel port hardware supports and which your software uses.

Parallel in the fastest mode (ECP) can do about 1 megabyte per second,
and USB 1.1 full-speed about 1.5 megabyte per second.

Whether the printer can keep up with either of those, or if it was
designed for either interface to go that fast... can't say, because we
don't know the brand and model.
 
There's more than one thing called "parallel". It depends on the modes
your parallel port hardware supports and which your software uses.

Parallel in the fastest mode (ECP) can do about 1 megabyte per second,
and USB 1.1 full-speed about 1.5 megabyte per second.

Whether the printer can keep up with either of those, or if it was
designed for either interface to go that fast... can't say, because we
don't know the brand and model.
Click to expand...

Ah, USB is measured in BITS per second while 'parallel' printer
connections are measured in BYTES per second.

Not to get into the maths too much, but a 1 meg parallel connection is
nominally 8-10x FASTER than a 1 meg USB 1.1 connection. A parallel
connection also has loads of error correction and two-way ack/nak flow
control that USB lacks.

Other factors, such as printer and host (computer) processing speeds
and buffers come into play too.
 
phreak said:
Ah, USB is measured in BITS per second while 'parallel' printer
connections are measured in BYTES per second.
Click to expand...

To compare correctly, you have to adjust units, which I did.

Note that "USB 1.1" has two speeds: low-speed and full-speed.

As I said above, USB 1.1 *full-speed* is 12 megabits per second, or
about 1.5 megabytes per second.
Not to get into the maths too much, but a 1 meg parallel connection is
nominally 8-10x FASTER than a 1 meg USB 1.1 connection.
Click to expand...

That would be a *low-speed*, or 1.5 megabits, or 0.1875 megabytes per
second.
A parallel connection also has loads of error correction and two-way
ack/nak flow control that USB lacks.
Click to expand...

You're kidding, right?
 
Hello

So 5 year printer have both USB1 and parallel connector

How choice, and what is faster?
Click to expand...

For a printer, it really isn't going to matter much. However, a factor
is the actual cable. A USB cable is thinner and less intrusive. It's
nominally limited to 5 metres, but you can get extenders. Parallel
cables are limited (I forget the length) but you need pretty high
quality ones and won't get as much as an extended USB.

So take your pick.
 
as we do not know the type of the printer one can not say for sure,
but in general the speed of normal kind of home printer will not
matter , since there is anyway no way the printer will use that
maximum speed in any way useful. MOstly the memory will full before
first characters will be printed and the rest of the time nothing will
happen until the printer really consumes the data sent to it.
 
Hello

So 5 year printer have both USB1 and parallel connector

How choice, and what is faster?
Click to expand...

On consumer grade printers, the print head will be MUCH slower than either USB
or parallel so it really doesn't matter which one you choose. It will take the
same amount of time to print your page.

However if you are using Windows and your parallel port is in SPP or EPP mode
then your computer will run much slower while you are printing. This is
because a traditional parallel port can only use polled IO. However a USB
controller can use DMA which eliminates the need for polling so your CPU can
do other things while printing.

--Tom.
 
Had a talk with someone involved in overseeing writing printer drivers
for OSs, who should really know this stuff.

His comments: whenever possible use USB (whatever version) over
parallel. Better and fatter datapath, faster, better bidirectional
support, uses less power, just overall better technology.

His only caveat is that in some cases, since USB is a much more shared
resource, if you have a very demanding USB situation, it might slow
things down, although with a printer, usually not that significant,
whereas most parallel ports connections are relatively exclusively used
for printing.

Even with that, he suggested using a USB router over parallel in the
majority of cases.

Art
 
Back
Top