An industry group that develops and promotes the Universal Serial Bus interface announced Friday the availability of a new USB specification that supports streaming media devices.

The USB Implementers Forum released on its Web site the USB Video Device Class Specification Revision 1.0, which is designed to make it easier for hardware makers, specifically streaming-media makers, to have their devices plug into and be recognized by personal computers.

USB is a hardware interface primarily for low-speed peripherals such as mice, keyboards, printers and scanners. It has a maximum bandwidth of 480 megabits per second. USB software allows computers to recognize a large range of devices by categorizing them into classes. A mouse or keyboard, for instance, would be recognized as a generic input device.

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