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by jason mcdonald, senior editor | read other blog posts

The transition to USB 3.0 or 'SuperSpeed USB' is well underway. April will see a major developers conference in Taiwan, and the vendor community is both rolling out new USB 3.0 products as well as product development products, especially from the test and measurement community. This month we take a look at what's new in USB 3.0 and help identify the best web resources for you to join in this fast-developing embedded market opportunity.

contents of this post:

1. USB 3.0 - SuperSpeed USB - What is it?
2. USB 3.0 - SuperSpeed USB - Featured News
3. USB 3.0 - SuperSpeed USB - Places to Learn More
4. feedback - read it
5. feedback - give it

USB 3.0 - SuperSpeed USB - What is it?

USB 3.0 or SuperSpeed USB is both a major speed enhancement to USB and an enhancement to the power management features. It seeks to address both major consumer concerns: faster throughput for today's multimedia and storage-intense applications, and assisting with improving the battery life of mobile electronics. One neat feature in USB 3.0 is it will allow hosts to communicate with 'dead' devices (i.e., those whose battery is dead), which is a common consumer problem.

SuperSpeed USB will deliver 10x the data transfer rate of Hi-Speed USB, as well as improved power efficiency.

• SuperSpeed USB has a 5 Gbps signaling rate offering 10x performance increase over Hi-Speed USB.
• SuperSpeed USB is a Sync-N-Go technology that minimizes user wait-time.
• SuperSpeed USB will provide Optimized Power Efficiency. No device polling and lower active and idle power requirements.
• SuperSpeed USB is backwards compatible with USB 2.0. Devices interoperate with USB 2.0 platforms. Hosts support USB 2.0 legacy devices.
  Source: USB.org

SuperSpeed USB is beginning deployment and many of the products needed to 'design in' USB 3.0 are coming online. See the USB 3.0 Announcements from the January CES for more information.

USB 3.0 - SuperSpeed USB - Featured News

As we begin USB 3.0 deployment, vendors are rushing to help designers 'design in' USB 3.0 and 'verify' the accuracy of their SuperSpeed USB designs. Synopsys, for example, announced their DesignWare® USB 3.0 Protocol Analyzer, a new graphical debugger for SuperSpeed USB 3.0, which simplifies debug for engineers verifying SuperSpeed USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 interfaces in their systems-on-chip (SoCs) by providing a graphical view of the protocol traffic. (Details, here ).

Another example comes from LeCroy Corporation. That company extended the capabilities of their Voyager USB 3.0 Protocol Verification system to help enable receiver and transmitter physical layer testing. USB 3.0 design teams tasked with PHY layer compliance verification can now combine the Voyager exerciser with a high-speed oscilloscope to allow early characterization of device electrical layer performance. (Details, here ).

Perhaps the most interesting (and affordable) SuperSpeed USB announcement comes from Total Phase. "Total Phase's Beagle USB 5000 Superspeed analyzer is a crucial addition to the USB development community," said Derek Fung, senior engineer at Total Phase. "A protocol analyzer is an essential tool when working with a new and complex protocol like USB 3.0. This new analyzer provides a more affordable option for engineers who want to enter the Superspeed USB space." The company announced their Beagle™ USB 5000 SuperSpeed Protocol Analyzer, a real-time USB 3.0 bus monitor. The Beagle USB 5000 SuperSpeed analyzer captures and displays SuperSpeed USB data in true real time, and features cross-platform support for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. Its cost: less than $10,000. (Details, here ).

USB 3.0 - SuperSpeed USB - Places to Learn More

The best starting point to learn about SuperSpeed USB is, of course, at USB.org. The specific microsite on USB 3.0 can be found, here . Don't miss the technical papers as well as the USB 3.0 Presentations . There is a flashy video as well, with some marketing speak from Intel, which isn't worth much.

The best quick video on it is actually from a Japanese journalist from the last Tokyo USB 3.0 conference, here . It's sad that the USB IF can't upload the videos themselves, but at least we have that one glimpse into a recent conference.

If you are in Asia, or have a good travel budget, you won't want to miss the April, SuperSpeed USB Technical Conference in Taipei, Taiwan. Closer to home (at least for USA folks), check out the USB 3.0 / SuperSpeed USB training from MindShare, here . And, of course, for all things USB you can track it on eg3.com, at http://www.eg3.com/usb.htm .

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Express Logic develops, markets and supports the ThreadX® real-time operating system (RTOS), NetX™ TCP/IP networking stack, USBX™ USB stack, and FileX® embedded file system, and PrismX™ GUI toolkit for embedded applications. ThreadX is a royalty-free, full source code, small-footprint, low-overhead RTOS that is extremely easy to learn and use. ThreadX is one of the most widely deployed RTOS products in the world, with over 800 million products based on ThreadX.