Patent ID: 7627704

Claim:
A universal serial bus (USB) communication interface configured to provide for communication between an electronic device with another electronic device using first or second data transmission modes, said first mode of data transmission comprises single-ended asynchronous data transmission and wherein said second mode of data transmission comprises USB differential transmission of data, the interface comprising: first communication circuitry for communication using said first mode; second communication circuitry for communication using said second mode; switching circuitry configured to selectively connect the first/second communication circuitry to a common transmission path based on determining circuitry for determining the mode of data transmission on said common transmission path; and a USB port configured to physically conform to a USB specification for receiving a data bus, the USB port including power and ground lines and first and second data lines, the first and second data lines forming part of the common transmission path; wherein the interface is configured to; use the first and second data lines for data transmission in said second USB differential data transmission mode and in said first single-ended asynchronous data transmission mode without the need for an interface adapter, the first single ended asynchronous data transmission mode providing for a use of one of said first and second data lines only to receive data and the other of said first and second data lines only to transmit data, and the second USB differential transmission mode providing for use each of said first and second data lines both to transmit and receive data; use a first set of voltage levels along the data lines in said first mode of data transmission; and use a second different set of voltage levels along the data lines in said second mode of data transmission; and wherein said switching circuitry is configured to shift the first or second set of voltage levels of the data lines between the two sets of voltage levels.