Product category:
Communications ICs (Wired)
News Release from: Cypress Semiconductor | Subject: TetraHub
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 28 April 2004
Controller enables USB hub for "road
warriors"
Iogear has designed Cypress's TetraHub USB hub controller chips into its MicroHub family of portable, high-speed USB hubs.
Iogear has designed Cypress's TetraHub USB hub controller chips into its MicroHub family of portable, high-speed USB hubs Cypress's TetraHub technology provides MicroHub users with a significant increase in device performance and productivity
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 11 Feb 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
Related stories
Hub controller keeps USB running at full speed
TetraHub USB hub controller chips are shipping in a new multiport hub being announced this week by Belkin, the world's leading manufacturer of USB hub devices.
USB 2.0 hub controller passes muster
The Cypress Semiconductor TetraHub USB 2.0 hub controller has successfully passed the full suite of compliance tests set by the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF).
Cypress's TetraHub chip (CY7C65640) is the industry's first USB 2.0 hub controller to integrate one "transaction translator" (TT) in each downstream port, delivering a full 12Mbit/s of bandwidth to each connected legacy full-speed USB peripheral.
Newer high-speed USB 2.0 peripherals will realise speeds of 480Mbit/s.
Transaction translators are crucial to ensuring the forward and backward compatibility of USB 1.1 (low/full-speed) and 2.0 (high-speed) devices.
Further reading
Nonvolatile SRAMs expand to 8Mbit
New 2 and 8Mbit nvSRAMs feature access times as low as 20ns, infinite read, write and recall cycles, and 20-year data retention.
Design tool bridges high and low levels
Integrated design environment includes both code-free and high-level-language programming modes in one package.
Wireless device extends remote control
Rosie remotes use robust Cypress wireless technology to overcome limitations of infra-red, including line of sight requirements and range of less than 10m.
Competing USB 2.0 hubs force connected full-speed peripherals to share a single 12Mbit/s data channel, which can bottleneck data and render a system inoperable when multiple devices are used simultaneously.
The installed base of full-speed peripherals is still very large creating possible customer support issues when used with these competing single-TT hubs.
TetraHub continues to penetrate the high-speed hub market, where it has claimed significant design wins from most of the industry's major hub makers, according to Paul Novell, Managing Director of the Wired Business Unit in Cypress's Personal Communications Division.
"TetraHub prevents device enumeration failures by providing four times more available bandwidth to downstream ports than competing solutions", Novell said.
"Our multi-TT architecture allows for more flexible connection sequencing, resulting in more reliable performance and fewer support calls for our customers".
Described as "the world's thinnest USB hub" by Iogear, the four-port, MicroHub (GUH274) is designed for the multitasking "road warrior".
This plug-and-play unit measures just 3.5 x 1.5in, stands less than 0.5in tall, and features a retractable USB cable conveniently tucked away into the hub's casing.
The device allows users to expand a single USB port to four ports, providing the highest performance available in a USB hub.
"MicroHub was engineered with the mobile professional in mind", said Jeff Sun, Product Development Manager at Iogear.
"Thanks to the small package size of the TetraHub chip, we were able to design a very successful, small form factor hub that is easy to carry around and supports up to four devices".
Sun added that the designing with Cypress's TetraHub USB hub controller chip was made simple.
"Cypress provided us with a reference design kit that helped to smooth out the development process and get our product to market quickly", he said.
Cypress's TetraHub solution provides USB hubs with the system intelligence needed for high levels of data control.
It supports all three USB speeds: low-speed (1.5Mbit/s), full-speed (12Mbit/s) and high-speed (480Mbit/s), enabling multiple devices of varying speeds to operate on the hub simultaneously.
The TetraHub device can function as a high-bandwidth controller in stand-alone hubs, monitor hubs, port replicators and docking stations, or it may be used to increase the number of USB ports on a PC without integrating additional host controllers.
It is available in a space saving, cost effective 56-lead QFN package.
Cypress also offers a hub reference design and evaluation kit to shorten and simplify product design cycles.
• Cypress Semiconductor: contact details and other news
• Email this article to a colleague
• Register for the free Electronicstalk email newsletter
• Electronicstalk Home Page
Search the Pro-Talk network of sites
