USB: Transfer Speed Compared to Other Technologies

This document compares the data transfer rates of USB and different peripheral technologies such as ADB, Serial, SCSI, and FireWire.
Below is a comparison of speeds of different technologies, from slowest to fastest. Please note that these are theoretical maximum throughputs of the different technology.
Technology
Theoretical Maximum Throughput
Apple Desktop Bus (ADB)
0.01 Mbps or 10 Kbps
Serial Port
0.23 Mbps or 230 Kbps
Geoport Port
2 Mbps
USB 1.1 at low data transfer rate
1.5 Mbps
USB 1.1 at high data transfer rate
12 Mbps
FireWire 400
400 Mbps
SCSI
1-40 MB/sec
Fast SCSI
8-80 MB/sec
Ultra SCSI-3
18-160 MB/sec
USB 2.0 at high data transfer rate
480 Mbps
FireWire 800 at 800 Mbps
800 Mbps
Published Date: Feb 20, 2012