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> you need a USB Vendor ID and Product ID to uniquely identify your device to computers. What's the technical reason why this is part of the USB spec? Why do

by nfoz 12y ago

> you need a USB Vendor ID and Product ID to uniquely identify your device to computers. What's the technical reason why this is part of the USB spec? Why do devices need unique identifiers, or what benefit does this provide?

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ricardobeat 12y ago
License fees.
- zaroth 12y ago
  IMO, this is the only right answer. Otherwise, the ID would be a 64-byte GUID and that would be the end of it. dd if=/dev/urandom of=~/guid bs=64 count=1 od -t x1 ~/guid # the following step optional bitcoind sendtoaddress '1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt' '19.72'
  - TillE 12y ago
    The USB spec was developed twenty years ago, when the computer industry looked very different and the internet barely existed for normal people. It's a suboptimal decision perpetuated by backwards compatibility, nothing more.
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mdwrigh2 12y ago
We use it for basic device recognition so we can do things like normalize keymappings on Android. See https://source.android.com/devices/input/key-layout-files.html https://source.android.com/devices/input/key-layout-files.ht...
gizmo686 12y ago
Drivers. When you plug a device into a computer, it uses the ID to determine what driver knows how to run it.
- deleted 12y ago
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