Device Bay

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Device Bay was a standard jointly developed by Compaq, Intel and Microsoft in 1997, as a simple way to add, remove, and share hardware devices. Originally intended to be introduced in the second half of 1998, Device Bay was never finalized and has long since been abandoned. The official website disappeared in mid-2001.

Compaq American manufacturer of computers

Compaq was a company founded in 1982 that developed, sold, and supported computers and related products and services. Compaq produced some of the first IBM PC compatible computers, being the first company to legally reverse engineer the IBM Personal Computer. It rose to become the largest supplier of PC systems during the 1990s before being overtaken by HP in 2001. Struggling to keep up in the price wars against Dell, as well as with a risky acquisition of DEC, Compaq was acquired for US$25 billion by HP in 2002. The Compaq brand remained in use by HP for lower-end systems until 2013 when it was discontinued.

Intel American semiconductor company

Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, in the Silicon Valley. It is the world's second largest and second highest valued semiconductor chip manufacturer based on revenue after being overtaken by Samsung, and is the inventor of the x86 series of microprocessors, the processors found in most personal computers (PCs). Intel ranked No. 46 in the 2018 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.

Microsoft U.S.-headquartered technology company

Microsoft Corporation (MS) is an American multinational technology company with headquarters in Redmond, Washington. It develops, manufactures, licenses, supports and sells computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services. Its best known software products are the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, the Microsoft Office suite, and the Internet Explorer and Edge web browsers. Its flagship hardware products are the Xbox video game consoles and the Microsoft Surface lineup of touchscreen personal computers. As of 2016, it is the world's largest software maker by revenue, and one of the world's most valuable companies. The word "Microsoft" is a portmanteau of "microcomputer" and "software". Microsoft is ranked No. 30 in the 2018 Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.

Making use of new technologies at the time, such as USB and Firewire, Device Bay was intended to make adding and removing devices from the PC easier, through the use of plug-n-play. It allowed peripherals such as hard drives, CD/DVD-ROM drives, audio devices, and modems, to be added to the PC without having to open the case or even turn the PC off. Devices could also be removed from the PC while it was still turned on; this could also be done through software in the operating system. Another advantage of Device Bay was that it allowed certain devices to be swapped between a desktop and laptop computer.

USB industry standard

USB is an industry standard that establishes specifications for cables, connectors and protocols for connection, communication and power supply between personal computers and their peripheral devices. Released in 1996, the USB standard is currently maintained by the USB Implementers Forum. There have been three generations of USB specifications: USB 1.x, USB 2.0 and USB 3.x; the fourth called USB4 is scheduled to be published in the middle of 2019.

HP released a line on PCs that uses the idea of device bay to expand the personal storage on a personal computer and marketed them as "HP Personal Media Drives". These Drives/Bays are primarily available on the HP Media Center PCs.

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