This page is part of the HL7 Terminology (v6.0.1: Release) based on FHIR (HL7® FHIR® Standard) v5.0.0. This is the current published version in its permanent home (it will always be available at this URL). For a full list of available versions, see the Directory of published versions

• Narrative Content
• XML
• JSON
• TTL
• History

NamingSystem: USB VID and PID as a device identifier

Official URL: http://terminology.hl7.org/NamingSystem/usb-address-identifier				Version: 1.0.0
Active as of 2021-06-14			Responsible: IHE Patient Care Devices (PCD)	Computable Name: USB_Address_Identifier

A USB device that is plugged in identifies itself by its VID/PID combination. A VID is a 16-bit vendor number (Vendor ID). A PID is a 16-bit product number (Product ID). A host uses the VID/PID combination to find the drivers (if any) that are to be used for the USB device. For this to work, the VID/PID combination must be unique, in the sense that each USB device with the same VID/PID will use the same driver. So, whenever you need a specific driver for your USB product, you will need a unique VID/PID for that product. In that sense, the VID/PID combination does not really serve as a truly unique identifier of a single device instance. It is, however, useful to know for medical devices that communicate using USB.