inSilicon gets physical with USB 2.0

Edited by the Electronicstalk editorial team Jan 18, 2001

inSilicon has announced the availability of its initial USB 2.0 physical layer (PHY) semiconductor intellectual property product.

inSilicon has announced the availability of its initial USB 2.0 physical layer (PHY) semiconductor intellectual property product.

inSilicon's USB 2 PHY is the first product delivered from the company's stated analogue mixed-signal product strategy and is the fruit of the USB technology development efforts with Tality LLP, the former Cadence Design Systems, which was announced in June 2000.

The 40X improvement in data rate offered by USB 2.0 improves the performance of many high-volume consumer applications, including desktop video cameras, portable storage, external CD-R/W, optical scanners, inkjet and laser printers, TV tuners and audio speakers.

"Our USB 2 PHY enables a complete and cost-effective single-chip USB 2.0 implementation", said Robert Nalesnik, vice president of marketing of inSilicon.

"When combined with our industry-leading USB 2 Device Controller, we enable customers to realize significant system cost, size and power reductions over multi-chip implementations".

The initial foundry process for the USB 2 PHY is the TSMC 0.18-micron CMOS digital logic process, CL018G.

A version based on the UMC 0.18-micron process is also slated for development.

Semiconductor designers with mixed signal capability can license inSilicon's USB 2.0 PHY integration kit to create USB 2.0 UTMI physical layer components in proprietary processes.

The device is a complete mixed signal semiconductor IP solution designed for single-chip USB 2.0 integration in both device and host applications.

The USB 2 PHY includes all of the required logical and physical design files to enable designers to implement USB 2.0 capability in system-on-chip design, and fabricate the designs in the designated foundry.

The USB 2 PHY integrates high-speed, mixed signal, custom CMOS circuitry compliant with the industry-standard UTMI Specification (version 1.04).

The technology supports the USB 2.0 480Mbit/s protocol and data rate, and is backward compatible with the USB 1.1 legacy protocol at 1.5 and 12Mbit/s.

The USB2 PHY mates to inSilicon's USB 2 device controller, announced May 2000, and USB 2.0 host controller currently in development.