system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
How were they able to increase the speed of USB 2.0  40 times compared to USB 1.1. It's using exactly the same connector with the same 4 wires and the same shielding.

USB 1.1 has 12 Mbit/s while USB 2.0 has a speed of 480 Mbit/s, but how? Why didn't they make is 480Mbit/s the first time?
gpt
They never aimed for speed on USB1. It was a replacement for a bunch of different disjoint ports with a speed that would allow all their functions to be condensed to a single connector. That was the whole point - a Universal Serial Bus. You could connect keyboards (no more PS/2 keyboard connector), mice (no PS/2 mouse connector), serial devices (no more serial ports), parallel devices (no more parallel port) and similar devices. It wasn't intended for fast transfer - you'd use Firewire/iLink/IEEE1394 for that.

For a five-year-old: It's like somebody took the good Lego, Duplo, Meccano and K'Nex parts and made them fit together. Your parents will still call it a toy but it's really really awesome.