Consumer and Computer InterfaceNews, information, trends, and musings related to Interface Topics in the Consumer & Computing market segmentshttps://e2e.ti.com/blogs_/archives/b/interface/atomTelligent Community (Build: 11.1.7.15705)2010-04-30T08:06:00ZCES 2012 in reviewhttps://e2e.ti.com/blogs_/archives/b/interface/posts/ces-2012-in-review2012-01-24T14:42:00Z2012-01-24T14:42:00Z<div><b>Other Parts Discussed in Post: </b><a href="https://www.ti.com/product/TUSB8040" class="internal-link folder product" title="Link to Product Folder" target="_blank">TUSB8040</a>, <a href="https://www.ti.com/product/TUSB7320" class="internal-link folder product" title="Link to Product Folder" target="_blank">TUSB7320</a>, <a href="https://www.ti.com/product/TUSB1310A" class="internal-link folder product" title="Link to Product Folder" target="_blank">TUSB1310A</a>, <a href="https://www.ti.com/product/TUSB9261" class="internal-link folder product" title="Link to Product Folder" target="_blank">TUSB9261</a>, <a href="https://www.ti.com/product/SN65LVPE502CP" class="internal-link folder product" title="Link to Product Folder" target="_blank">SN65LVPE502CP</a>, <a href="https://www.ti.com/product/SN75DP130" class="internal-link folder product" title="Link to Product Folder" target="_blank">SN75DP130</a>, <a href="https://www.ti.com/product/SN75DP126" class="internal-link folder product" title="Link to Product Folder" target="_blank">SN75DP126</a>, <a href="https://www.ti.com/product/HD3SS212" class="internal-link folder product" title="Link to Product Folder" target="_blank">HD3SS212</a>, <a href="https://www.ti.com/product/SN75LVDS83B" class="internal-link folder product" title="Link to Product Folder" target="_blank">SN75LVDS83B</a>, <a href="https://www.ti.com/product/SN65LVDS301" class="internal-link folder product" title="Link to Product Folder" target="_blank">SN65LVDS301</a>, <a href="https://www.ti.com/product/SN65LVDS302" class="internal-link folder product" title="Link to Product Folder" target="_blank">SN65LVDS302</a></div><p>Every year, we bring some of our best and most innovative technologies to CES in Las Vegas, this year was the same.</p>
<p>In the Consumer & Computing Interface space we had five live demos. </p>
<p>To start we highlighted the industry’s only end–to–end SuperSpeed USB 3.0 portfolio utilizing customer products that feature our host controller (TUSB7320), hub (TUSB8040), peripheral (TUSB9261), and discrete transceiver (TUSB1310A) in addition to the related USB power management and ESD protection. ECN Magazine featured this demo in their CES 2012 Videos - watch it <a href="http://youtu.be/xKtZ5Gmpn_8">here</a>.. We also demonstrated the benefits of our SN65LVPE502CP in cleaning up signal quality challenges presented by USB 3.0.</p>
<p>In the DisplayPort area, we also demonstrated our DP1.2 signal conditioning capabilities (SN75DP126 & SN75DP130) as well as our DP FET switch (HD3SS212) for enabling switched graphics.</p>
<p>We highlighted multiple tablets and eReaders that feature our panel SN75LVDS83B Flatlink™ serializer. We also demonstrated our our sub-LVDS (SN65LVDS301 & SN65LVDS302 serializer/deserializer pair) drive strength capability by extending the panel over over 5 feet from the source. ECN Magazine also covered this - see the video <a href="http://youtu.be/wAT45Rr0reY">here</a>.</p>
<p>Of course the thing we all look forward to at CES is what the new hot thing will be. At CES 2010, it was tablets. last year it was 3D TV. This year, I'll have to say I was slightly disappointed in that there really wasn't any new "hot" item. 3D TVs were everywhere - LG has a football sized room to show them off, as did all of the other big guys. Everyone also featured their latest in tablets and <a href="http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ultrabook/shop-ultrabook.html">UltraBooks</a>. </p>
<p>My take away from CES 2012 was not hot new hardware, but Apps everywhere on every appliance!</p>
<p>From a personal Wow factor, one item that caught my eye was a company called Cubify with their <a href="http://cubify.com/cube/index.aspx">Cube</a>, 3D Create at Home Printer. As I told my wife, not sure what I would do with one at home, but boy it had the cool factor! One of my co-workers wants to pool our money and buy one after seeing it! I can see some great uses for the technology in SOHO Design Houses for prototyping!</p>
<p>What did you see at CES 2012 that wowed you and what do you think the hot technology will be this year?</p><div style="clear:both;"></div><img src="https://e2e.ti.com/aggbug?PostID=566657&AppID=381&AppType=Weblog&ContentType=0" width="1" height="1">DHarmonhttps://e2e.ti.com:443/members/6879What's all the buzz about Thunderbolt?https://e2e.ti.com/blogs_/archives/b/interface/posts/what-s-all-the-buzz-about-thunderbolt2011-06-07T13:30:00Z2011-06-07T13:30:00Z<div><b>Other Parts Discussed in Post: </b><a href="https://www.ti.com/product/SN75DP126" class="internal-link folder product" title="Link to Product Folder" target="_blank">SN75DP126</a></div><div><span class="377225917-03062011"><span style="font-size:x-small;font-family:Arial;">
<p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">The new Apple / Intel wired external interface, Thunderbolt, is all the "buzz" these days. I am getting asked a lot of questions on how Thunderbolt is going to replace USB 3.0 as the main I/O of choice on PCs sooner rather than later. Before I dive into the USB 3.0 versus Thunderbolt discussion, let’s take a quick review of what Thunderbolt really is. <br /></span></span>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';mso-fareast-font-family:'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size:x-small;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:small;"></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';mso-fareast-font-family:'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size:x-small;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">If we go to the </span></span></span><a href="http://www.intel.com/technology/io/thunderbolt/index.htm"><span style="font-size:x-small;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">Intel Thunderbolt brief</span></span></span></a><span style="font-size:x-small;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">, we can see that the basic concept is to take your DisplayPort and PCI-Express (PCIe), multiplex them, and then send out a combined transmission from the host system. The "peripheral" system will then take Thunderbolt in and extract either the PCIe or DisplayPort signal as required for the peripheral of choice. </span></span></span></span><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:'Times New Roman';"></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';mso-fareast-font-family:'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size:x-small;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:small;"></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:x-small;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:small;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:'Times New Roman';">One implication of this has been lost in the buzz. The "source" of the DisplayPort and PCIe are not changing and<span style="color:#002060;">,</span> therefore<span style="color:#002060;">,</span> the performance remains identical for those interfaces. In other words, if the source is DP 1.1, then the throughput across is still at DP 1.1 rates (2.7 Gbps). If the source is DP 1.2 capable, then the performance for the DisplayPort throughput bumps up to the 5.4 Gbps of DP 1.2. For PCIe, the assumption is that it will be a x1, Gen 2 Link<span style="color:#002060;">,</span> which drives 5 Gbps on both Tx and Rx lines. If you add the bandwidth of PCIe x1, Gen2 to that of DP 1.2<span style="color:#002060;">,</span> you get ~ 10.4 Gbps vs. the Thunderbolt transmission speed of 10.3 Gbps. This means that the mux chip must be doing more than simply time<span style="color:#002060;">-</span>slicing the two signals together. It must be eliminating some of the protocol overhead<span class="377225917-03062011"> and </span>replacing it with Thunderbolt-specific transmission overhead.</span><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:'Times New Roman';"></span></span></span></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';mso-fareast-font-family:'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size:x-small;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:small;"></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:x-small;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:small;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:'Times New Roman';">So<span style="color:#002060;">,</span> if you really are not getting any better DP or PCIe performance than what an existing system is capable, what is the value of Thunderbolt? My opinion is that i<span style="color:#002060;">t</span> is about form factor and ergonomics. Thunderbolt (and Lightpeak in the future) can enable the elimination of various connectors on a system to be replaced by the single Thunderbolt receptacle. This opens up the possibility of some very slim form factors while still enabling multiple high-bandwidth I/Os. The follow-on to th<span style="color:#002060;">is</span> becomes<span style="color:#002060;">,</span> <span style="color:#002060;">“</span>What will this cost to the system implementers: How much more will the additional chip and the new receptacle cost than the existing connectors? Are end users willing to pay the premium for sleeker form factors, but no additional performance?<span style="color:#002060;">”</span></span><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:'Times New Roman';"></span></span></span></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size:x-small;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:small;"></span></span></span></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';mso-fareast-font-family:'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size:x-small;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:small;"></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';mso-fareast-font-family:'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size:x-small;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">Getting back to the initial question of Thunderbolt versus USB 3.0<span style="color:#002060;">,</span> I do not see these as conflicting technologies<span style="color:#002060;">.</span> I see them as complimentary. USB just will not go away as a key interface for PC systems - it just has become too ubiquitous. One way to think of this is to consider that for most portable PCs, ultimately there is a docking solution for "fixed" usage scenarios such as in the office. Thunderbolt would be an ideal interface for a new docking paradigm - a cabled dock. With Thunderbolt<span style="color:#002060;">,</span> a single cable passes both the monitor interface (DP) as well as the data interface (PCIe). Then inside the dock the PCIe interface can be used to add any other data I/Os that are typically available in docks today <span style="color:#002060;">–</span> such as USB 3.0, Firewire IEEE-1394, or eSATA via the use of PCIe Packet Switch and various PCIe<span style="color:#002060;">-</span>based host controllers, such as the <span style="color:#000000;"><span style="color:#002060;"><a href="http://www.ti.com/tusb7340-pr">TUSB7340</a></span></span><span class="377225917-03062011"><span style="color:#002060;"> </span></span>for USB 3.0 or the </span></span></span><a href="http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/xio2213b.html"><span style="font-size:x-small;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">XIO2213B</span></span></span></a><span style="font-size:x-small;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:small;"><span class="377225917-03062011"> </span>for 1394. These docks also can offer the "full" user I/O experience via additional downstream devices such as flash media readers or stereo audio. Also, fundamentally<span style="color:#002060;">,</span> we need a place to plug our thumb drives into! The DisplayPort signal can be mapped directly to a DP receptacle or<span style="color:#002060;">,</span> if the dock wants to support HDMI in addition to DP, then a simple 1:2 switch with level shifting capabilities, such as the </span></span></span><a href="http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/sn75dp122a.html"><span style="font-size:x-small;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">SN75DP122A</span></span></span></a><span style="font-size:x-small;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:small;"> (DP 1.1++) or soon to be available SN75DP126 (DP 1.2++) can be used.</span></span></span></span><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:'Times New Roman';"></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';mso-fareast-font-family:'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size:x-small;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:small;"></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';mso-fareast-font-family:'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size:x-small;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">Finally, there are legal regulations that<span class="377225917-03062011"> </span>mandate USB continue to be available for the foreseeable future. The Chinese Government and the European Union Commission both have mandated that all mobile phones use the micro-B USB receptacle for charging and can not have any other type of dedicated power receptacle. While this does not necessarily mean that a PC must have a USB connector as a dedicated wall charger with a micro-USB plug can be used to charge the devices. USB in the host system offers a simple means to not only charge your mobile phone, but to exchange data with the PC. With the passing of these governmental rules, most other portable consumer products (personal navigation devices, portable music players, portable media players, tablets, eBooks, etc.) have chosen to use the same micro-B receptacle as their only charging port as well.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';mso-fareast-font-family:'Times New Roman';"><span class="377225917-03062011"><span style="font-size:x-small;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:small;"></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';mso-fareast-font-family:'Times New Roman';"><span class="377225917-03062011"><span style="font-size:x-small;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">Tell me what you think about Thunderbolt and if you plan on implementing it in future products?</span></span></span></span></span></p>
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</span></span></div><div style="clear:both;"></div><img src="https://e2e.ti.com/aggbug?PostID=407540&AppID=381&AppType=Weblog&ContentType=0" width="1" height="1">DHarmonhttps://e2e.ti.com:443/members/6879Two SuperSpeed USB Announcements - Same Primary Message!https://e2e.ti.com/blogs_/archives/b/interface/posts/two-superspeed-usb-announcements-same-primary-message2011-04-12T14:41:00Z2011-04-12T14:41:00Z<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:small;font-family:Times New Roman;">On April 11th, 2011, both Texas Instruments and Cypress Semiconductor made announcements concerning upcoming SuperSpeed USB (USB 3.0) Products. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes;"> </span>On the surface the two announcements are unrelated and in all honesty they really are totally unrelated.</span></p>
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<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:small;font-family:Times New Roman;">We at <a href="http://newscenter.ti.com/Blogs/newsroom/archive/2011/04/11/ti-achieves-industry-s-first-superspeed-usb-four-port-extensible-host-controller-with-usb-if-certification-669621.aspx">TI announced</a> </span><span style="font-size:small;font-family:Times New Roman;">that our 4-port SuperSpeed USB Extensible Host Controller (xHCI), <a href="http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/tusb7340.html">TUSB7340</a>, is the first 4-port xHCI device that has been <a href="http://www.usb.org/kcompliance/view/view_item?item_key=ddee4161e74b687726d014ba5639d6e7edac7b17&referring_url=/kcompliance">certified</a> </span><span style="font-size:small;font-family:Times New Roman;">by the <a href="http://www.usb.org/home">USB Implementers Forum</a></span><span style="font-size:small;font-family:Times New Roman;">. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes;"> </span>It extends TI’s Industry broadest portfolio of SuperSpeed USB Products that includes the industry’s only SuperSpeed USB discrete transceiver, <a href="http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/tusb1310a.html">TUSB1310A</a>; a 2nd generation of USB-to-SATA bridge, <a href="http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/tusb9261.html">TUSB9261</a>; both the above 4-port xHCI device as well as a 2-port version, <a href="http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/tusb7320.html">TUSB7320</a>; and a 4-port hub, <a href="http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/tusb8040.html">TUSB8040</a>.</span></p>
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<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Cypress-Introduces-EZUSB-FX3-bw-3080041906.html?x=0&.v=1">Cypress announced</a></span></span><span style="font-size:small;font-family:Times New Roman;"> that they will be releasing a new general purpose SuperSpeed USB peripheral controller branded EZ-USB FX3. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes;"> </span>The importance of this message is that this device will enable peripheral products <a href="http://e2e.ti.com/blogs_/b/interface/archive/2010/10/28/superspeed-usb-applications-other-than-storage.aspx">NOT in the storage space</a></span><span style="font-size:small;font-family:Times New Roman;">.</span></p>
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<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:small;font-family:Times New Roman;">The importance of these two messages is that SuperSpeed USB is real and continues to ramp at incredible rates. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes;"> </span>Just a little over a year ago at CES 2010, the first certified products were announced. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes;"> </span>Now 16 months later, there are well over 200 certified products including the <a href="http://www.usb.org/press/USB-IF_Press_Releases/USB-IF_CertifiedChipset_FINAL.pdf">first integrated core logic chipset from AMD</a>!</span></p>
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<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:small;font-family:Times New Roman;">SuperSpeed USB is here – what do you want to do with it?</span></p><div style="clear:both;"></div><img src="https://e2e.ti.com/aggbug?PostID=368888&AppID=381&AppType=Weblog&ContentType=0" width="1" height="1">DHarmonhttps://e2e.ti.com:443/members/6879What does typical product certification look like? https://e2e.ti.com/blogs_/archives/b/interface/posts/cert-prt-deux2011-03-06T18:00:00Z2011-03-06T18:00:00Z<p>Hi, Dan Harmon back again with an overview of the certification process promised in my last post on (<span class="value"><span style="color:#666666;">4 Mar 2011 12:01 AM</span></span>).</p>
<p>As I stated earlier, the certification process is a very important step for delivering quality products to the ultimate end-user, the consumer. So let's keep them in mind during this discussion. Since my focus is <a href="http://www.ti.com/usb3-pr">SuperSpeed USB</a>, we'll base our example on the <a href="http://www.usb.org/about">USB Implementer's Forum (USB-IF)</a>, but the thought process applies to other standards bodies as well. Having been involved with standards bodies for more than a decade I'm very familiar with the general process.</p>
<p>So, what exactly does USB-IF testing certify? And, if the silicon is already certified, why do end products also need to be certified? It all comes down to three things: 1) electrical compliance, 2) protocol compliance, and 3) interoperability. </p>
<p>1) <b>Electrical</b> testing is designed to address the lowest layer over a USB device, the physical layer (sometimes called the transceiver or PHY). The idea is to verify whether your transmit side is good enough to drive a signal over a worst-case transmission path and be detected by a worst-case receiver. The test also looks in the other direction: can your receiver properly detect a worst-case transmitter over a worst-case transmission line? Fairly straightforward in concept, but the "how" to simulate worst case on the other end and what is worst case are all what goes into defining the tests. USB 1.0/1.1 was a little easier to test and pass because transmitting at 12 Mbps does not take the same level of engineering to accomplish as transmitting at 5 Gbps - where boards and cables are even more critical! This is why it is important for both the silicon AND the end product to be electrically tested. A change in board layout or internal cabling can lead to vastly different results. Naturally, the silicon has to be good to start with. So, if the system is poorly implemented, good silicon can only do so much to overcome this problem. Subsequently, the burden is on <i>both</i> the silicon supplier <i>and</i> system implementer to deliver an adequate consumer experience from an <i>electrical</i> point-of-view.</p>
<p>2) <b>Protocol-level</b> testing is aimed at the link or core layer of a USB device. It tries to eliminate all other factors and determine if the peripheral device (and upstream hub ports) will respond correctly to specific functions/commands as defined in the specification. The host system is put into a special test mode where it can access special levels of the downstream link core, exercise it, and monitor the response to verify that it responds correctly and in a timely fashion to such activities as enumeration, suspend, wake, etc. Testing developed by the USB-IF Device Working Group includes device-class protocols such as mass storage, human interface, and video. For example, in the area of mass storage testing, the specification defines 13 possible error cases when moving data between the host system and peripheral. Typically these cannot be tested with real-world applications, but need to be tested to verify that the proper response occurs to minimize consumer frustration and potential data loss with a mass storage device. For a USB host system (and hub downstream ports), an idealized peripheral device is connected and a similar test mode is entered by the host to verify that the commands can be sent to the peripheral. When both proper and improper results are seen from the device, the host takes the appropriate action. This is purely at the <i>protocol</i> level, and not at the application level.</p>
<p>3) <b>Interoperability</b> really has more to do with the <i>application</i> level. The simple way to think about interoperability testing is, "Do these devices play well with each other?" Now, the fact is that you cannot test every device with every USB product ever sold. So the intent of this testing is to get a fairly broad brush of representative devices and verify that your device works as intended when those devices are also in use on the same host system. For host systems, this is much more about verifying that your controller and stack can work with as many products as possible. But again, it is impossible to test with the billions of USB devices that have shipped over the past 10+ years. While this seems like it could be the simplest test, this is actually the biggest stumbling block for most products. As more and more SuperSpeed USB products are out in the market, the need to verify that they all play together as best as possible is critical to success.</p>
<p>Granted certification puts a few more steps into product delivery, but isn't it worth it - especially when your brand is the one that bubbles to the top because of ease of use, simplicity, and consumer confidence that your product will work seamlessly with other devices? I think so, but I'm really interested in hearing what you have to say about it. Please join my blog and post your thoughts here.</p><div style="clear:both;"></div><img src="https://e2e.ti.com/aggbug?PostID=340024&AppID=381&AppType=Weblog&ContentType=0" width="1" height="1">DHarmonhttps://e2e.ti.com:443/members/6879Why is a product certification process important?https://e2e.ti.com/blogs_/archives/b/interface/posts/why-is-a-product-certification-process-important2011-03-04T06:01:00Z2011-03-04T06:01:00Z<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;">Hello, this is Dan Harmon back to you with my thoughts about something that I think is very important for all products that deal with industry standards, and that is: Product Certification.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;">The first thing to understand about certification is why do we do it? Who really is intended to benefit from certifying that products are compliant to the USB Specification? The simple answer is the consumer … your mom, grandfather, uncle, niece, etc., who all just want their new computer or peripheral to work flawlessly from the start. That is really who certification is intended to help the most. And, honestly, they probably are the least informed that there is a process in place, or more importantly that there are certified and uncertified products on the market, that could either enhance or diminish their purchase. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;">For those of us in the business of delivering these products to consumers, there are benefits as well. For the silicon supplier, like us here at TI, the benefit is that our ODM/OEM customers should feel like they are getting a quality product that they can implement into their end products that can be delivered to the consumer with confidence and that it is going to work and work well, and that the support calls and returns will be minimal. For an end product to be certified, it must use certified silicon – so this is a bidirectional relationship. In addition to the benefits mentioned earlier for the end product manufacturer going through the certification process – there include minimal after-sale costs associated with support calls, returns due to "defective" products that just do not work right with each other, etc.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;">The only way for this value to be delivered from the multitude of silicon suppliers through an even greater number of manufacturers to the even greater pool of consumers, is for trade associations/industry bodies to create a series of standardized tests to ensure that a "device" meets a set of minimum standards. For example, the <a href="http://www.usb.org">USB Implementer's Forum</a> (USB-IF) is the industry organization responsible for maintaining certification for all USB products. The USB-IF comprises over 650 member companies from all parts of the globe and has had a comprehensive certification process in place for more than a decade. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;">Keep in mind that certification cannot be a stagnant process. It must continuously evolve if we are to deliver the consumer experience that is the desired end result. So why would a silicon supplier/end-equipment manufacturer NOT want to go through this process? Okay, so there are some up-front costs and added time associated with testing that could impact your time-to-market, if one is having trouble with passing the testing. However, in my view, all of these are minimal compared to the risk of potential end consumers losing faith in your products. At the end of the day, it’s ultimately the consumer who decides whether these products succeed or fail – so why not protect your investment as well as theirs up front, where it’s most cost-efficient and makes the most sense?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;">In my next blog I’m going to delve somewhat into the actual certification process, so stay tuned for that.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;">What are your thoughts on this subject? I’d really like to hear from you. </span></p><div style="clear:both;"></div><img src="https://e2e.ti.com/aggbug?PostID=340015&AppID=381&AppType=Weblog&ContentType=0" width="1" height="1">DHarmonhttps://e2e.ti.com:443/members/6879CES 2011 Observationshttps://e2e.ti.com/blogs_/archives/b/interface/posts/ces-2011-observations2011-01-07T06:37:00Z2011-01-07T06:37:00Z<div><b>Other Parts Discussed in Post: </b><a href="https://www.ti.com/product/TUSB7340" class="internal-link folder product" title="Link to Product Folder" target="_blank">TUSB7340</a>, <a href="https://www.ti.com/product/TUSB8040" class="internal-link folder product" title="Link to Product Folder" target="_blank">TUSB8040</a>, <a href="https://www.ti.com/product/TUSB9261" class="internal-link folder product" title="Link to Product Folder" target="_blank">TUSB9261</a>, <a href="https://www.ti.com/product/TUSB1310A" class="internal-link folder product" title="Link to Product Folder" target="_blank">TUSB1310A</a>, <a href="https://www.ti.com/product/SN65LVPE502" class="internal-link folder product" title="Link to Product Folder" target="_blank">SN65LVPE502</a></div><p>Hi there everyone from Las Vegas and CES 2011.</p>
<p>Thought I'd share a few of my observations from today.</p>
<p>I thought I'd start with what was in the USB TechZone where I spent most of the day. There are twenty exhibitors this year, half of which are either IC suppliers (eight of these) or chip IP suppliers. There are also three cable assembly manufacturers, three test solution providers, and finally one each on the end product. motherboard, embedded software, and Wireless USB markets.</p>
<p>Of the eight silicon suppliers, three were highlighting xHCI host controllers and three were highlighting hubs - the two type of devices that had very little offer just a year ago. At CES 2010 there was one host supplier and no hub suppliers demoing ASICs. There were also three companies in the USB-HDMI market which is one of the new segments that USB 3.0 have opened up capabilities that were very limited with USB 2.0. The Fujitsu raid controller device was demoing an impressive throughput of over 350MB/s! However, not to be too self serving, but in my opinion, the TI demonstration was the most impressive with the only full end-to-end product offering.</p>
<p>Our demo included:<br />TUSB7340, the industry's first four-port xHCI host controller<br />TUSB8040, four-port SuperSpeed Hub<br />TUSB9261, 2nd Generation SuperSpeed USB to SATA 3G Bridge; three instances - one with a BluRay drive and two with SSDs<br />TUSB1310A, 2nd Generation of the Industry's first (and only still!) SuperSpeed Transceiver as implemented in the <a href="http://www.totalphase.com/products/beagle_usb5000/">Total Phase Beagle 5000<br /></a>SN65LVPE502, SuperSpeed USB Redriver as implemented by <a href="http://www.hosiden.com/index.htm">Hosiden</a> in a 10m active cable</p>
<p>We believe this gives us the industry's only full end-to-end product portfolio and when you include the power management and ESD solutions available from TI, we can offer the industry a one-stop shop for their SuperSpeed USB Product needs.</p>
<p>Outside of the TechZone, some of the other cool things, OK some of them maybe not so much "cool" but fascinating! First was the Taser booth right across the aisle. This is an example of "consumer electronics" that des not typically come to mind when we here the term. But the technology in the products is impressive and they are targeting the general consumer with their products as a means of non-lethal personal security. They actually included an area where you could "seel" what it is like to fire one. But the fascinating - you know in the can't pass a car wreck without looking sort of way - was the opportunity to willingly allow yourself to be tased! I watch a early 30's gentleman who works in the law enforcement area reduced to a sputtering after take a hit! Really made me want to avoid ever having a run in with the law that might have one of those things aimed at me!</p>
<p>The other hot item was again 3D TVs. There were many of these spread throughout the show floor with varying experinces including one sthis year that use some sort of polymer between glass setup to enable a 3D experience without the need to use glasses - that is the way I would want to own one, but to be honest it was not quite up to the "experience" of the glasses versions yet, but hopefully it will get there soon!</p>
<p>Let me know what cool things you saw this year!</p><div style="clear:both;"></div><img src="https://e2e.ti.com/aggbug?PostID=301621&AppID=381&AppType=Weblog&ContentType=0" width="1" height="1">DHarmonhttps://e2e.ti.com:443/members/6879Happy Holidayshttps://e2e.ti.com/blogs_/archives/b/interface/posts/happy-holidays2010-12-22T16:20:00Z2010-12-22T16:20:00Z<p>Wow another year has already passed me by – it seems like we were just celebrating New Years and looking forward to CES-2010 and here are already to Christmas 2010 and getting ready for CES 2011.</p>
<p>I love this time of year as all the new "toys" get rolled out for Christmas and then instantly get overshadowed two weeks later by the even newer toys at CES.</p>
<p>As we get ready for our SuperSpeed USB roll-out at CES, I am really fascinated by the progress that has happened this year in the market. If we remember <a href="http://e2e.ti.com/blogs_/b/interface/archive/2010/03/31/superspeed-usb-3-0-market-when-will-it-be-real.aspx">CES 2010</a>, we were all fascinated by the number of notebook and desktop PC models that Asus, HP, & Toshiba were showing that featured this new port on them. Now almost 12 months later, that number has more than doubled and over 14 Mu SuperSpeed USB enabled end products will ship in 2010 according to <a href="http://www.instat.com/catalog/mmcatalogue.asp?id=161#IN1004689MI">In-Stat's latest update</a>.</p>
<p>I am really excited to see what is new at CES 2011 in the SuperSpeed USB market as well as if anything related to Lightpeak shows up on the floor.</p>
<p><b><i>Let me know what you think the hot new toy will be this year at CES? </i></b></p>
<p>Come see me if you are at the show and I will show the TI SuperSpeed USB Portfolio - we will be in the USB TechZone in the Las Vegas Convention Center South #4 Upper level, Booth 36505</p>
<p>I will be recharging my batteries over the next week and getting ready for the week long dance in Las Vegas. </p>
<p>I hope you have a safe and happy holiday season and I will be back with you on January 6th letting you know what I saw on day 1!</p><div style="clear:both;"></div><img src="https://e2e.ti.com/aggbug?PostID=295699&AppID=381&AppType=Weblog&ContentType=0" width="1" height="1">DHarmonhttps://e2e.ti.com:443/members/6879SuperSpeed USB Applications, other than storage!https://e2e.ti.com/blogs_/archives/b/interface/posts/superspeed-usb-applications-other-than-storage2010-10-28T22:24:00Z2010-10-28T22:24:00Z<div><b>Other Parts Discussed in Post: </b><a href="https://www.ti.com/product/TUSB1310" class="internal-link folder product" title="Link to Product Folder" target="_blank">TUSB1310</a></div><p>Well it has been a while, but I thought I would share some of what I have been talking with customers about over the last couple of months.</p>
<p>Customers are really starting to look at using SuperSpeed USB for a wide variety of applications - in the last few weeks examples I have been hit with are data acquisition unit, a data logger, A/D converter, a camera, and image processing unit. What they all have in common is that they produce a lot of content/data and want to get it from the "sensor" to the PC fro processing rapidly. The problem they are facing is that all of the peripheral devices available on the market today are geared towards storage applications - like the <a href="http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/tusb9260.html">TUSB9260</a> or <a href="http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/tusb9261.html">TUSB9261</a>.</p>
<p>Our <a href="http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/tusb1310.html">TUSB1310</a> presents a solution for these customers. The TUSB1310 is a SuperSpeed USB PHYsical layer or transceiver. It is the analog portion of the USB device and can be used in conjunction with an FPGA that incorporates the digital USB 3.0 device controller function to implement any device function that a customer can envision - the only limitation being the size/space of the FPGA! </p>
<p>We have an <a href="http://focus.ti.com/lit/an/sllu123/sllu123.pdf">implementation guide</a>available that discusses board layout and power issues, but much of the critical design activity is really the FPGA that is used. There are multiple third parties offering full SuperSpeed USB Device development environments featuring the TUSB1310 as the PHYsical layer.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.plda.com/index.php">PLDA, Inc</a>. offers Peripheral Development Kits that support either <a href="http://www.plda.com/download/doc/ip/usb/usb%20device_PB%20altera.pdf">Altera</a> or <a href="http://www.plda.com/UploadFiles/File/usb%20device%20xilinx%202010.pdf">Xilinx</a> FPGAs.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.slscorp.com">System Level Solutions</a> offers an <a href="http://www.slscorp.com/pages/download.php?cat=IP1&subcat=IC21">Altera-based PDK</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://www.synopsys.com">Synopsys</a> has a development platform called the <a href="http://www.synopsys.com/tools/verification/fpgabasedprototyping/pages/haps.aspx">HAPS</a> that they offer a daughter card with the TUSB1310 on to enable USB 3.0 functionality.</li>
</ul>
<p>Other IP Companies are starting to offer platforms as well - check back later and I will update the list as more offerings go public.</p>
<p>Also, let me know what you are wanting to do with SuperSpeed USB!</p><div style="clear:both;"></div><img src="https://e2e.ti.com/aggbug?PostID=258037&AppID=381&AppType=Weblog&ContentType=0" width="1" height="1">DHarmonhttps://e2e.ti.com:443/members/6879Intel Developer's Forum Fall-2010 Day 1 – Highlights & Observationshttps://e2e.ti.com/blogs_/archives/b/interface/posts/intel-developer-s-forum-fall-2010-day-1-highlights-amp-observations2010-09-14T16:54:00Z2010-09-14T16:54:00Z<p>Wow, I can not believe it has been over a month since I posted - time sure flies when you are traveling around the world like I have been!</p>
<p>On to IDF Day 1. The Keynotes given by Paul Ottellini (Intel CEO) & Dadi Perlmutter (Executive VP for Intel Architecture).</p>
<p>My take-aways from Ottellini: </p>
<ul>
<li>He called his keynote "The changing face of personal computing"</li>
<li>Much of the focus was on the opportunities for their Atom architecture</li>
<li>Spiked out Automotive, home automation, smart phones and smart TV and highlighted the high penetration of smart devices across these markets</li>
<li>Intel’s key focus in 2010-2011 and beyond will be ‘seamless connectivity’ this is what the world is demanding</li>
<li>The industry hit a new milestone in 2010 with PCs passing the 1MU per day shipment rate
<ul>
<li>Cited 18 percent unit growth this year and next year for overall PC markets.</li>
<li>Indicated strong shift to laptops driven from one-pc-per-household to one-pc-per-person</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Highlighted the "Three Pillars" of computing:
<ul>
<li>Energy efficient performance</li>
<li>Security</li>
<li>Internet connectivity</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>And my take-aways from Perlmutter:</p>
<ul>
<li>Human interaction with computer needs to evolve from mouse and keyboard to gestures and natural</li>
<li>Communications Infrastructure shifting to Intel architecture</li>
<li>No real mention of either SuperSpeed USB or LightPeak</li>
</ul>
<p>Demo Showcase Night 1 Observations: </p>
<ul>
<li>SuperSpeed USB Community has ~ 12 booths</li>
<li>Silicon suppliers in showcase are: TI, Renesas (NEC), Fujitsu, Genesys Logic, Fresco Logic</li>
<li>Most attendees are still not familiar with SuperSpeed USB
<ul>
<li>Specifically that it is backwards compatible at the connector level</li>
<li>New electrical signalling</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Lots of discussion on SuperSpeed USB vs. LightPeak - see <a href="http://e2e.ti.com/blogs_/b/interface/archive/2010/05/27/light-peak-amp-superspeed-usb-usb-3-0-compeition-or-complimentary.aspx">previous blog</a> on this topic for more information.</li>
<li>The "when" of Intel's chipsets!!!</li>
</ul>
<p>If you are attending IDF this year, what cool things did you see or hear?</p><div style="clear:both;"></div><img src="https://e2e.ti.com/aggbug?PostID=231513&AppID=381&AppType=Weblog&ContentType=0" width="1" height="1">DHarmonhttps://e2e.ti.com:443/members/6879Texas Instruments expands Analog Production Capacityhttps://e2e.ti.com/blogs_/archives/b/interface/posts/texas-instruments-expands-analog-production-capacity2010-08-03T20:24:00Z2010-08-03T20:24:00Z<p>Normally I come on here and talk about the great things happening in the Consumer & Computing Interface realm - specifically SuperSpeed USB (USB 3.0). Today, I thought I talk about something great that TI has done for all of our customers.</p>
<p>On July 14th, TI <a href="http://newscenter.ti.com/Blogs/newsroom/archive/2010/07/14/ti-expands-analog-production-capacity-with-acquisition-of-wafer-manufacturing-plant-in-japan-458010.aspx">announced</a>the that they had acquired two additional fabs from Spansionin Japan. One fab is an operational 200mm fab which will initially produce data converters and amplifiers on TI’s precision HPA07 process technology. The technology transfer is already underway, and this 200mm fab will be in production in 4Q10. This fab will add about $1B worth of annual production for TI’s analog business. The second fab is an empty shell, which we are reserving for future capacity expansions. </p>
<p>Along with these two fabs, TI also purchased 300mm wafer manufacturing equipment from Spansion, which will be sent to the new fab recently open in Richardson, TX (RFAB – the world’s first 300mm analog fab) to help complete Phase II of the expansion of RFAB. </p>
<p>From a fab standpoint, this marks four important capacity increases for TI in the last year. Phase I of RFAB will enable TI to deliver $1B of increased shipments to our customers. Phase II will add an additional $1B. The Spansion 200mm fab adds another $1B, and the empty shell will enable further increases as needed. Well over $3B of increased capability represents an additional 75% over our 2009 analog revenue of $4B. </p>
<p>We are the only semiconductor company to make this level of investment over the last 12 months and while it does not cure all of the near-term capacity/delivery issues that the unprecedented recovery from the last downturn has created across the industry, this positions us very well to meet your needs as the recovery continues.</p><div style="clear:both;"></div><img src="https://e2e.ti.com/aggbug?PostID=209005&AppID=381&AppType=Weblog&ContentType=0" width="1" height="1">DHarmonhttps://e2e.ti.com:443/members/6879What is the real throughput that you can expect over a SuperSpeed USB (USB 3.0) link?https://e2e.ti.com/blogs_/archives/b/interface/posts/what-is-the-real-throughput-that-you-can-expect-over-a-superspeed-usb-3-0-link2010-07-30T15:43:00Z2010-07-30T15:43:00Z<div><b>Other Parts Discussed in Post: </b><a href="https://www.ti.com/product/TUSB7340" class="internal-link folder product" title="Link to Product Folder" target="_blank">TUSB7340</a>, <a href="https://www.ti.com/product/TUSB8040" class="internal-link folder product" title="Link to Product Folder" target="_blank">TUSB8040</a></div><div> </div>
<div><span style="font-size:x-small;font-family:Arial;">First, I wanted to tell everyone how exciting it was last week at the USB-IF Compliance workshop to see so many SuperSpeed USB end-products there for certification - <em>it was a thing of beauty</em>! Of course there were silicon suppliers as well including us doing testing for our TUSB8040, SuperSpeed HUB, and TUSB7340, SuperSpeed Host controller.</span></div>
<div> </div>
<div><span style="font-size:x-small;font-family:Arial;">Now on to the topic of the day - <strong><em>What is the real throughput that one can expect over a SuperSpeed USB link?</em></strong></span></div>
<div> </div>
<div><span style="font-size:x-small;font-family:Arial;">First, we need to understand that <a href="http://www.knowledgetransfer.net/dictionary/Storage/en/8b10b_encoding.htm">8b/10b encoding</a> is used in the data transmission, so while the raw bit rate is 5 Gbps, the encoding cuts this down by 20% to 4 Gbps. For those of you who are Firewire (IEEE-1394) fans, the lower number is actually the way the 1394b speeds are defined: s800 is actually a raw 1Gbps bit rate, s1600 is 2 Gbps raw bit rate, and s3200 is 4Gbps raw bit rate.</span></div>
<div> </div>
<div><span style="font-size:x-small;font-family:Arial;">The next factor is the overhead of headers, etc. For examples, in one benchmark test, we have run our <a href="http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/tusb9260.html">TUSB9260</a> (USB-to-SATA) talking to a solid-state drive (SSD) and are seeing 252.4 MBps of read throughput. If you take that exact same SSD and connect it directly to the SATA host in the same PC, the throughput is 258.2 MBps. This means that the USB "overhead" is roughly 6 MBps - every time you run the benchmark, you get slightly different results, so I took the best of five trials for each. This means the USB overhead is <span style="color:#ff0000;"><em>roughly 2%</em></span> of the total bandwidth. This would reduce the overall 4Gbps down to right around 3.9Gbps (~485 MBps) range.</span></div>
<div> </div>
<div><span style="font-size:x-small;font-family:Arial;">The much bigger issue is the software that is needed on the PC/DSP to process the data. </span><span style="font-size:x-small;font-family:Arial;">For example, with the new USB Attached SCSI Protocol Mass Storage driver running on a high-end processor PC with an advanced 6-Gig Serial ATA drive, the expectations are that the throughput for reads from the drive to the PC will max out in the 350 MBps range (~2.8Gbps). But this is an ideal world and we are seeing more in the 300 MBps (~2.4 Gbps) range for normal implementations.</span></div>
<div><span style="font-size:x-small;font-family:Arial;"></span> </div>
<div><span class="298404114-30072010"><span style="font-size:x-small;font-family:Arial;">Please let me know what applications you are working on that take advantage of the throughput of SuperSpeed USB that you could NOT do with USB 2.0!</span></span></div><div style="clear:both;"></div><img src="https://e2e.ti.com/aggbug?PostID=207270&AppID=381&AppType=Weblog&ContentType=0" width="1" height="1">DHarmonhttps://e2e.ti.com:443/members/6879SuperSpeed USB (USB 3.0) Market Updatehttps://e2e.ti.com/blogs_/archives/b/interface/posts/superspeed-usb-usb-3-0-market-update2010-06-28T14:55:00Z2010-06-28T14:55:00Z<p>Dan Harmon here again,</p>
<p>I thought today I would spend a couple of minutes just commenting on the amazing momentum that SuperSpeed USB has in the market place.</p>
<p>Every day more products are being announced. From an end product standpoint they remain primarily notebook PCs and external HDDs and enclosures.</p>
<p>From an enabling silicon standpoint, the majority of the IC suppliers are targeting the same end equipments referenced above: host controllers for the PC side and SATA bridges for external storage.</p>
<p>Now an even wider selection of devices are becoming available as well. These include support devices including ESD protection (like the <a target="_blank" href="http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/tpd2eusb30.html">TPD2EUSB30</a>), signal integrity enhancement redrivers (<a target="_blank" href="http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/sn65lvpe502.html">SN65LVPE502</a>), and a wide selection of power management solutions such as battery chargers and power switches. </p>
<p>Today, we announced the availability of the Industry's first SuperSpeed USB Discrete Transceiver - the <a href="http://www.ti.com/usb1310-pr">TUSB1310</a>. This device provides the analog front end section of a USB device and is intended to be used with FPGAs (for the near term) and application processors (longer term) that have integrated the digital controller core, but did not/can not integrate the analog physical signaling layer. The combination of the discrete PHY with the FPGAs enable a broadening of the end applications that can now take advantage of the new SuperSpeed USB technology. This device allows developers to focus their efforts on developing the application and not have to worry about the core specification issues that are handled by the PHY and core IP. High-end imaging applications are one of the first that have wanted a standard data transfer pipe that is much wider that will take advantage of this technology.</p>
<p>Let me know what application you are targeting with the <a href="http://www.ti.com/usb1310-pr">TUSB1310</a>!</p>
<p>Dan</p><div style="clear:both;"></div><img src="https://e2e.ti.com/aggbug?PostID=176280&AppID=381&AppType=Weblog&ContentType=0" width="1" height="1">DHarmonhttps://e2e.ti.com:443/members/6879SuperSpeed USB (USB 3.0): Much more than just a speed increase!https://e2e.ti.com/blogs_/archives/b/interface/posts/superspeed-usb-usb-3-0-much-more-than-just-a-speed-increase2010-06-04T12:56:00Z2010-06-04T12:56:00Z<p>Dan Harmon back to talk some more about SuperSpeed USB.</p>
<p>Today I thought I would spend a little bit of time addressing the <em>"other"</em> benefits of SuperSpeed USB.</p>
<p>Most of the press activity around the technology has focused on the raw speed increase to 5 Gbps from the 480 Mbps of USB 2.0 High–speed, a over 10x increase. But this is really only one of the four key values that the SuperSpeed USB Promoters were determined to deliver to the consumer. <br />• 10X Speed increase to 5 Gbps raw bit transfer rate <br />• Improving the power efficiency of the bus <br />• Maintaining backwards compatibility <br />• Improving the data transfer efficiency itself.</p>
<p>Improving power efficiency is ideal for extending the battery life for portable devices, whether hosts or peripherals. There are multiple aspects of the new specification that were developed to address reducing the overall power footprint of new USB devices including: <br />• Elimination of device polling <br />• Elimination of broadcasting packets <br />• Intermediate low–power IDLE states<br />• 10X data transfer speed increase <br />When you combine the bus usage efficiency (no broadcast packets and elimination of polling), the improved IDLE power states, and the lower average transmit power, SuperSpeed USB will consume approximately 1/3rd (or less!) the power of USB 2.0.</p>
<p>So what does backwards compatibility really mean then? If we approach this from the end–user perspective, it means that ALL my existing products that are compliant to the specification will seamlessly connect to and work with all new products supporting the new specification! This means that the existing cables (i.e. plugs) must be able to be inserted into the appropriate new receptacle. The reverse is also true, that the new cables must be able to be inserted into the old receptacles – again where appropriate.</p>
<p>There are really two aspects to improving overall bus usage efficiency. I have already touched on the first aspect of this: the elimination of polling - do not use the bus unless data is ready to be transfered. In addition, the full duplex architecture of SuperSpeed USB allows for concurrent bi–directional data flow as opposed to the half duplex USB 2.0 architecture eliminating the need to "turn around the bus" which significantly cuts into bus efficiency.</p>
<p>Let me know how your products are taking advantage of these new benefits, Dan</p>
<p> </p><div style="clear:both;"></div><img src="https://e2e.ti.com/aggbug?PostID=180391&AppID=381&AppType=Weblog&ContentType=0" width="1" height="1">DHarmonhttps://e2e.ti.com:443/members/6879Light Peak & SuperSpeed USB (USB 3.0): Competition or Complimentaryhttps://e2e.ti.com/blogs_/archives/b/interface/posts/light-peak-amp-superspeed-usb-usb-3-0-compeition-or-complimentary2010-05-27T18:55:00Z2010-05-27T18:55:00Z<p>Dan Harmon back with you after a few weeks.</p>
<p>Today I wanted to expand a little on a subject I <a href="http://e2e.ti.com/blogs_/b/interface/archive/2010/04/21/observations-from-idf-beijing.aspx">previously</a> touched on after IDF-Beijing - that being the <em>competition</em> that <a href="http://techresearch.intel.com/articles/None/1813.htm">Light Peak</a> is being portrayed as to SuperSpeed USB. </p>
<p>If you actually read the the above page on the Intel Research site concerning Light Peak, I think they state it pretty well when they say: "Light Peak also has the ability to run multiple protocols simultaneously over a single cable..."</p>
<p>That sums of the heart of the matter of why Light Peak and SuperSpeed USB are complimentary and not competing. </p>
<p style="padding-left:60px;"><strong><em><span style="color:#ff0000;">Light Peak is a transport medium that does not include a protocol.</span></em></strong></p>
<p>As such Light Peak must have a protocol running on top of it to actually transmit data from point A to point B. What protocols can run over Light peak? Name one – USB 3.0, IEEE-1394, eSATA, HDMI, or DisplayPort – and they can run over Light Peak. The real beauty of the technology is that the bandwidth is high enough starting at 10Gb/s and scaling to 100 Gb/s in the future to run multiple of these protocols simultaneously over the same fiber connection!</p>
<p>One remaining item to be cleared up still with Light Peak is the economic feasibility of it. Historically high–speed optical transmission has NOT been inexpensive. I know Intel is claiming that Light Peak will be on par with existing cable technologies, but that still remains to be seen - especially the when part of it.</p>
<p>Talk to you again soon, Dan</p><div style="clear:both;"></div><img src="https://e2e.ti.com/aggbug?PostID=176274&AppID=381&AppType=Weblog&ContentType=0" width="1" height="1">DHarmonhttps://e2e.ti.com:443/members/6879SuperSpeed USB (USB 3.0): Is 5 Gbps really needed?https://e2e.ti.com/blogs_/archives/b/interface/posts/superspeed-usb-usb-3-0-is-5-gbps-really-needed2010-04-30T14:06:00Z2010-04-30T14:06:00Z<p>Back again, and I thought I'd talk about a topic that gets discussed a lot as I have been traveling around, visiting customers, and exhibiting at events concerning SuperSpeed USB:</p>
<p style="padding-left:60px;"><strong><em><span style="color:#ff0000;">Does 5 Gbps really help since most media can not go that fast anyway?</span></em></strong></p>
<p>The short answer is, 5 Gbps is faster than most media is capable of! </p>
<p>The whole point of developing a new specification around data transfer is to eliminate the current bottleneck! USB 2.0 high–speed had become the bottleneck. Whether it was an external rotating media (HDD or optical), a solid-state drive based product, or the ubiquitous flash drive - the storage media was capable of transferring data at a rate that exceeded what USB 2.0 was capable of! This was one of the prime reasons for the formation of the USB 3.0 Promoter's Group. </p>
<p>As the Promoter's Group debated how fast to make USB 3.0, three factors helped make the decision. First was to keep backwards compatible - needed to be able transfer the data via a cable/connector that would be compatible with the existing USB 2.0 systems. Second , it had to to be economically feasible. And finally, it needed to be fast enough to provide headroom to support media performance enhancements down the road. There was work done on assessing the capabilities of the existing USB 2.0 cables, plugs and receptacle to see where the signal integrity performance degraded to a point to be non-usable. This was then balanced with improving the materials of these while keeping them economically feasible.</p>
<p>All of these factors combined for the Promoters to agree that 5 Gbps would be economically feasible with backwards compatible cables & connectors while allowing enough headroom for a minimum of five years.</p>
<p>Let me know what you think, Dan</p><div style="clear:both;"></div><img src="https://e2e.ti.com/aggbug?PostID=153386&AppID=381&AppType=Weblog&ContentType=0" width="1" height="1">DHarmonhttps://e2e.ti.com:443/members/6879