How receive signal from usb

Hello. I am looking for help. I am a simple programmer, and know nothing about chips...

So, I need your help, to know from where should I begin ...what I want to do, is to build something that has 20 leds and has some kind of chip and can connect to computer via usb....
And then , I want to be able to send signals from PC to chip to light those leds, each individual...

Programing I can learn, no problem, but I dont know what I must search =/

Could you be kind and help me ?.... just tell me what kind of chips do that, what kind of hardware and software I need .... or some tutorial... or just key words for me to search in google.
Anything would be great !

Get familiar with the FTDI product line. They make the chips that turn a USB into a serial port, among others.

You can use a USB to TTL serial converter cable to provide a serial output, then feed that into three 74HCT595 serial-in-parallel-out shift registers. You'll be able to update all 20 LEDs in the order of 40ms or so (based on the 15ms latency of changing the RTS pin of the CP2102).

I would recommend the CP2102 or FTDI varieties of USB-serial converters. Don't get an prolific clone RS232 output cable; they're cheaper, but the drivers don't work.

Thanks. 40ms update is great. I dont need faster !
Just to be sure, CP2102 is this one ?
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