Full family for faster USB designs

Edited by the Electronicstalk editorial team Feb 7, 2002

Dedicated NEC distributor Sunrise Electronics is releasing a new family of integrated circuits that speed USB designs into the next generation.

Dedicated NEC distributor Sunrise Electronics is releasing a new family of integrated circuits that speed USB designs into the next generation.

NEC is among the leaders in Hi-Speed USB (USB 2.0) chips that now enable data transfer rates up to 480Mbit/s (40 times faster than the classic USB).

NEC's offering includes devices for the PC end (host), router (hub) and the peripheral end (function).

All these devices have passed the compatibility tests drawn up by the USB governing body (USB-IF) and display the official Hi-Speed USB logo.

NEC's devices are already being adopted by the major PC developers worldwide in a burgeoning range of new cards and peripherals on the market.

The USB 2.0 standard allows for backward compatibility with earlier versions of USB.

NEC's devices make it possible to build fully backward-compatible systems that can run USB 1.0, USB 1.1 and USB 2.0 data streams simultaneously without loss of performance.

NEC's USB 2.0 host controller device, the uPD720100, integrates three host controller cores, a PCI interface and a USB 2.0 transceiver supporting up to five USB ports.

The three cores allow simultaneous transmission from all five ports, regardless of the USB standard used.

This makes it easy to create systems that support all USB configurations.

For hub designs, the uPD720110 hub controller device supports both the new Hi-Speed USB EHCI mode and the classic USB HC mode.

The controller supports all configurations both upstream and downstream.

The third device, a USB to IDE bridge known as the uPD720121, provides a full solution to enable any IDE device HDD, CD drive, MP3 etc to be connected to a hub or host.

It is fully compatible with ATA/ATAPI-4 standards.

Sunrise can supply information and design-in support for new USB designs now.

NEC has also announced a dedicated European Support Centre to assist customers wishing to develop Hi-Speed USB products.

The centre's engineers can advise customers about their designs and also provide reference design kits that will give a designer a complete instant solution including detailed Gerber file data for PCB development.