With this cable, you can connect your Raspberry Pi with your PC system and simultaneously provide your Raspberry Pi with power about 5 Volt and 500 mA from the USB Port of your PC, so you don't need a seperate power supply.

The PL2303HX chip is integrated in the cable and gives both devices the opportunity to exchange data.

This is supported by the operating systems of Windows XP, Vista, 7 and 8.