IEEE 1284 is a standard that defines bi-directional parallel communications between computers and other devices. In the 1970s, Centronics developed the now-familiar printer parallel port that soon became a de facto standard. The standard became non-standard as enhanced versions of the interface were developed, such as the HP Bitronics implementation released in 1992.

In 1991 the Network Printing Alliance was formed to develop a new standard. In March 1994, the IEEE 1284 specification was released. The IEEE 1284 standard allows for faster throughput and bidirectional data flow with a theoretical maximum throughput of 4 megabits per second; actual throughput is around 2 megabits, depending on hardware.

In the printer venue, this allows for faster printing and back-channel status and management. Since the new standard allowed the peripheral to send large amounts of data back to the host, devices that had previously used SCSI interfaces could be produced at a much lower cost. This included scanners, tape drives, hard disks, computer networks connected directly via parallel interface, network adapters and other devices.

No longer was the consumer required to purchase an expensive SCSI card—they could simply use their built-in parallel interface. These low-cost devices provided a platform to leapfrog the faster USB interface into its present popularity, displacing the parallel devices. However, the parallel interface remains highly popular in the printer industry, with displacement by USB only in consumer models.

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