Features of the USB ports include power saving modes and the ability to boot the computer using a USB mass-storage device.
The Pangea IC contains special circuitry that allows the computer to wake from Sleep mode on connect, disconnect, and resume events. Compatible USB devices should support the USB-suspend mode defined in the USB specification. Information about the operation of USB-suspend mode on Macintosh computers is included in the Mac OS USB DDK API Reference.
The Macintosh USB software supports booting from an external USB storage device.
Class drivers are software components that are able to communicate with many USB devices of a particular kind. If the appropriate class driver is present, any number of compliant devices can be plugged in and start working immediately without the need to install additional software. The Mac OS for the iBook computer includes USB Mass Storage Support 1.3, a class driver that supports devices that meet the USB Mass Storage Class specification. For information about USB support on the Macintosh, see the references in "USB Interface".
The iBook computer uses an Open Host Controller Interface (OHCI) controller for USB communication. Some early USB devices (most notably keyboards) can't interoperate with an OHCI controller. Those devices are not supported by the Macintosh USB system software.