A little history: USB 1.0
Good Grief, I'm getting old. I remember when the first computers equipped with Universal Serial Bus (USB 1.0) ports first appeared on the scene circa 1998. That's TEN YEARS AGO as I pen these words!
The original USB 1.0 supported two speeds: a "Low Speed" 1.5 Mbits/sec (187.5 Kbytes/s) used for human interface devices such as mice, keyboards, and joysticks and a "Full Speed" 12 Mbits/s (1.5 Mbytes/s) for everything else.
As I recall, I'd just purchased a new computer equipped with TWO (Woo Hoo) USB 1.0 ports. Sad to relate I didn't actually have anything to plug into them at the time and – sometime later when I did – I discovered that the ports had never been enabled and the drivers for them had never been installed. What a swizz!
Looking back to those far-off days, it seemed to take a long time before you could purchase USB-equipped devices to plug into your computer. In fact, I think the first such devices were more expensive computer mice and keyboards. At that time, most end-users were quite happy with their existing PS/2, serial, and parallel ports and couldn't see what the fuss was all about.
It took a several years before the mainstream adoption of USB until – suddenly – it seemed like there was an explosion of activity and EVERYTHING was equipped with USB: cameras, printers, GPS devices, PDAs, memory sticks ... you name it and it had a USB interface.
A little more history: USB 2.0
The early 2000s saw the introduction of USB 2.0, which supported a "High Speed" data rate of 480 Mbits/s (60 Mbytes/s). Truth to tell, when I first heard about USB 2.0 I wasn't all that excited. Maybe this was because I'd only just gotten the USB 1.0 ports on my computer to finally work or – possibly – because I still didn't have a lot of USB-equipped devices to play with.
But time moves on. I remember copying a bunch of documents onto a USB 2.0-enabled memory stick using a USB 2.0 port on a friend's computer – Wow! That was fast! Then I returned home and started to upload them from the memory stick onto my own USB 1.0-equipped computer – Arrggghh! That was soooo sloooowww!
Now of course, everything I have is equipped with USB 2.0 ports and connectors, including the USB Hamster in its wheel sitting on my desk – the faster I type the faster it runs round its wheel (and don't even ask me about the USB Humping Dogs I bought as "stocking fillers" for my friends).
"And now my friends, the show that never ends... USB 3.0"
Do you recall where "And now my friends, the show that never ends..." came from? I do, and their music is racing around my brain as we speak, but we digress...
Today's users of consumer electronics, personal computing, and mobile internet devices have an insatiable desire to transport and store large amounts of data at extreme speed. In order to address this demand, the third-generation Universal Serial Bus (USB 3.0) will transfer data at speeds of up to 4.8 gigabits-per-second, which is ten times faster than its USB 2.0 predecessor.
I for one cannot wait. Although I would have had little use for this level of bandwidth only a few short years ago, USB 2.0 is now proving to be a serious bottleneck for all sorts of applications. As a simple example, I have a digital video camera equipped with a hard drive that can store 10 hours of video (I still cannot believe how cool this is).
The problem comes when I connect this camera to my computer in order to upload and edit the video ... it takes soooooo loooooong. Similarly, when I'm backing my computer up to my external USB 2.0 hard drive, I could gnaw my own leg off in frustration while waiting for all of the files to be copied over.
Now, I know the folks at Fresco Logic (www.frescologic.com) and – more importantly – I know what they've been up to recently. These guys are absolute experts in high speed interconnect technologies such as PCI Express, Ethernet, InfiniBand, USB, Wi-Fi, Fibre Channel, and SATA.
More recently they've turned their attention to USB 3.0, and they've developed a suite of configurable and highly scalable USB 3.0 Design and Verification IP solutions to meet the needs of this "poised-to-explode" market. In addition to Super Speed USB 3.0 Host, Device, and Hub cores design and verification IP, they also provide complete USB 3.0-based subsystems and design and consulting services.
In fact, as per the product announcement I posted just a few minutes ago (article #210200006), the folks at Fresco Logic are currently demonstrating SuperSpeed USB 3.0 data transfer on their hardware development platform to the USB Community at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF). Apparently, this demonstration marks the first public showing of a working SuperSpeed USB host and device transferring data.
So, if you are planning on developing chips or systems using USB 3.0, I'd strongly suggest that you get in touch with the guys and gals as Fresco Logic (if you do, say "Max says "Hi").
Questions? Comments? Feel free to email me – Clive "Max" Maxfield – at max@techbites.com). And, of course, if you haven't already done so, don't forget to Sign Up for our weekly Programmable Logic DesignLine Newsletter.
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