Development Platform Accelerates USB 3.0 Designs For Any System

The SuperSpeed Explorer Kit is a development platform from Cypress that enables designers to add high-performance USB 3.0 throughput to virtually any system. The new kit is based on the programmable EZ-USB FX3 SuperSpeed USB 3.0 peripheral controller equipped with a highly configurable GPIF II, which is programmable in 8-, 16-, and 32-bit configurations and allows FX3 to communicate directly with application processors, FPGAs, storage media, and image sensors and provides a data transfer rate of up to 400 Mb/sec, while keeping power usage low. The development kit includes an integrated debugger and interfaces with external devices via three accessory boards that connect to Aptina image sensors, Altera FPGAs and Xilinx FPGAs. The USB 3.0 peripheral controller contains an on-chip ARM9 CPU core with 512 KB RAM which delivers 200 MIPS of computational power and is available for applications that require local data processing. EZ-USB FX3 is in volume production now and is available in two packages: a 121-ball BGA (10 x 10 mm) and a space saving 131-ball WLCSP (4.7 x 5.1 mm). The SuperSpeed Explorer Kit is now available for $49 online.

CYPRESS SEMICONDUCTOR CORPORATION