Ron Wilson, editor from EDN, recently published a very comprehensive article on USB 3.0. It includes insight from Synopsys as well as other notable companies such as SMSC, PLX Technology and TI. The article covers key areas that designers should understand when designing for USB 3.0 and consider when evaluating a USB 3.0 IP solution. But, more importantly, it reveals the critical implementation issues that are typically encountered only after they appear in the design process.  By understanding these issues ahead of time, it enables designers to better plan their USB 3.0 implementation.  And not coincidentally, these issues are addressed by the features in our USB 3.0 IP.

The article can also be found online:

http://www.controleng.com/articleXml/LN986401621.html

This Blog Entry Above Written by “PHY Guy” Gervais Fong, our USB PHY Product Marketing Manager.

Share and Enjoy

(Correctly identify the source of  “Share and Enjoy”  The 3 winners will be randomly selected to receive a USB Mouse based on the quality of their answer.  Googling is not allowed.)

(No, Mom, you don’t qualify.)

Winners will be subjectively chosen by me.

I realized I forgot the the best possible USB 3.0 product.

5) Combined USB 3.0 Host and USB 3.0 Flash Express Card.

This is the ExpressCard that has both a USB 3.0 Host and a USB 3.0 Flash Drive embedded in it.

Basically, the USB 3.0 Flash Drive adds storage, it has 100GB or more of storage space for your data, pictures, music video as a backup or extra storage for your Netbook.

This means it uses the ExpressCard USB 3.0 connector inside the PC and looks like an attached USB 3.0 Peripheral to the notebook/netbook PC.

Also, the product will have a USB 3.0 Host in it.  This uses the ExpressCard PCI-e connector on the ExpressCard, and provides 1 or 2 or more additional USB ports with the full 4 Gbits/sec adding more throughput from these ports into the laptop.  This Host looks like an attached USB 3.0 Host on the PCI-e bus.

For a 6th USB 3.0 product would add an additional external USB 3.0 Device A-Plug to the product above.

When you remove the product above, you use the USB 3.0 Device A-Plug that could be plugged into any standard PC USB  Host port.  The disadvantage, is that you probably end up with a Plug that sticks out somewhere on this card that can get bumped or broken, unless there is a way to fold it up.

The cool think about ExpressCard is that you will be able to add fast storage devices to your laptop with these cards.  Specifically, you can add more USB 3.0 ports because it’s fast enough to support the 5 Gbps.    Current ExpressCard slots can only support 2.5 Gbps, so it really isn’t fast enough to keep up with USB 3Read about it on Slashgear here

http://www.slashgear.com/expresscard-20-finalized-5gbps-for-10x-faster-cards-0946480/

So some of the early products can be:

1) USB 3.0 Host card - This provides USB 3.0 Host ports and has a PCIe interface on one edge. T his card would work in existing ExpressCard laptops and future ones as well.  This is cool for USB 3.0 PCs because an ExpressCard with a full XHCI host would provide a completely independent additional set of USB 3.0 Host ports for additional throughput.  In other words, existing USB 3.0 Host ports that ship with your PC can only provide a distributed 5 Gigabits per second.  The dedicated port(s) would provide an additional 5 Gbps on those ports.

A USB 3.0 Host card would have two physical connectors:
    A) a ExpressCard connector using PCIe Leads and
    B) USB 3.0 A-Receptacle.

2) USB 3.0 Hub card – This provides additional hub ports through the on-board USB 3.0 Host.  This is great because it adds ports to your PC.

A USB 3.0 Hub card would have two physical connectors:
    A) a ExpressCard connector using the USB 3.0 Leads and
    B) 1-4 USB 3.0 A-Receptacles.

3) USB 3.0 Flash Drive – This provides Mass Storage Device, basically a thumb/flash Drive.  For the form factors and sizes, I can easily see these being in the range of 100GB in the next 3 years.  This means that you could buy a Laptop with a embedded Hard/Flash drive of only 64 or 128GB later, and add on additional storage later, when you run out of space.

Of course, the big advantage of an ExpressCard over a Thumb Drive is that it doesn’t stick out so you can leave in plugged in all the time.  Also, with the new power saving features of USB 3.0, you can power down and use the low power modes so that it doesn’t draw power.

You could potentially also put a standard USB 3.0 connector on this as well, so that you could pull the drive out of the ExpressCard slot and plug it into a standard external USB 3.0 slot.  So it’s easy to use with non-ExpressCard PCs (like a MacBook) and devices (like a DTV). 

A USB 3.0 Flash Drive would have at least two physical connectors:
    A) a ExpressCard USB 3.0 Connector and
    B) Optional - A USB 3.0 A-Plug.

4) PCIe Flash Drive – This provides similar features the USB 3.0 Flash Drive, but uses some kind of driver I’m not familiar with.  The USB 3.0 Flash Drive will use standard USB Mass Storage drivers which have been shipping for 9 years, and newer, faster USB drivers as well.  These will be great, but I really don’t know if you can use some kind of standard driver with this, or need proprietary ones.  You could still have an extra, standard USB 3.0 A-Connector on this so you could remove from an ExpressCard slot and plug it into a external USB slot.

5) USB 3.0 Flash Drive and Hub – This is a compound device meaning it includes both a USB 3.0 Hub and a USB 3.0 Device.   In this case it uses the USB 3.0 Hub connected to the ExpressCard port.  Downstream it has multiple USB 3.0 Ports to connect to other dev ices.  One of those ports is used for the Flash Drive.  The Flash Drive uses a USB 3.0 Device controller embedded in it.  The remaining ports are external ports that provide additional USB 3.0 Connections.

A Compound Device would use the following connectors
    A) a ExpressCard USB 3.0 Connector and
    B) One or more USB 3.0 A-Receptacles

The connection from the Hub to the Device is internal to the ExpressCard.  I think this is great because it differentiates the Flash Drive as enabling 2 functions.  The end product is differentiated in the marketplace with the same form factor

The great thing is that all these will all be backward compatible to USB 2.0 also, they will just run at USB 2.0 speeds.

So I’m really excited that the ExpressCard standard has moved forward.  I hope to see products based on this soon. 

Internet Connectivity in TV is definitely happening.  CES had lots of examples of this

USB in TVs is definitely happening.

Connectivity and USB are definitely related.  You see, you can plug a WiFi USB Dongle into a USB port and connect your TV wirelessly to the internet.  It means that you don’t have to integrate the WiFi into the TV itself.

Here are 2 TVs that recently announced USB support:
The Toshiba REGZA and the Samsung B700

I recommend listening to this story on NPR (or read it) about streaming movies to your TV.  This set up seems extreme with a Stereo Tuner, Tivo, Apple TV, and Apple mini, but who am I to judge?  I have 3 Tivos and a DVD player hooked up to our main TV.

At times I am conflicted about writing about my personal TV experiences. You see, many of my colleagues in the office and around the world have no time to watch TV (or claim to).

Yet, I am a fan of several shows and I record a bunch of others. I watch them in the Gym on my iTouch or Zune. I use Netflix for DVDs of TV shows at the Gym (I go more than 180 days a year), and I watch TV at home a few hours a week when I’m working on something else.  Almost never just a a “Sit and Watch Experience”

It seems to be both uncool and unproductive in today’s world to just unwind and watch something.   Frankly, I feel nothing but “TV remorse” when I “Sit and Watch.”
More frankly, I never watch live TV, I only use Tivo.  Cut out the commercials and the characters you hate and you get done in 1/2 the time.

At the same time, we are praying for the consumers to buy more TVs.
More Consumer Electronics.
More Set Top Boxes (well, HD Programming through our cable provider)/
This is so that our entire industry can pick up.  We want consumers to buy more stuff that entertains us.  Of course we want businesses to buy stuff to, but ultimately, businesses serve consumers.  So we want consumers to buy more TVs, more iPods, more gadgets, more net tops, more laptops.

So the more we work, the less time we have to buy consumer electronics and use them.

It’s probably just me.

Then, of course, fitness experts say “don’t watch a movie while your exercising” and “don’t be a couch potato”.

I say, “Just go and run up a big hill and leave me in the Gym with my Media Player.”

Watch Chuck on NBC this fall.  Its fun.

I’ve just returned from the USB 3.0 Developers Conference in Japan.  There was a lot of excitement around the NEC announcement.   Sample chips will be available at $15 a chip in June 2009.  This pricing typical in the early market.  You can read the original press release here: http://www.necel.com/news/en/archive/0905/1801.html

Also, check out this video of a USB Rockstar.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFKwnHJQXsY