The industry's first dual-role USB 2.0 controller macrocell is now available from Mentor Graphics. It complies with both the current USB 2.0 standard for full-speed functions and the new On-The-Go supplement for point-to-point communication.
The Inventra MUSBFDRC synthesizable macrocell supports host and peripheral functions in point-to-point data transfers. With it, designers can include a single core for both peripheral and host applications, configuraing the core as required.
The On-The-Go supplement gives portable devices a cost-effective means of conducting point-to-point communications using USB protocols. It lets portables connect directly to a peripheral device for point-to-point file exchange without a host PC.
The soft IP core and an evaluation board are both available. The board shows how the core can be configured as a standard USB peripheral within a mass-storage device when connected to a PC. It also demonstrates file transfers from a PC to a peripheral over On-The-Go connections, as well as data transfers in the form of print files when configured as a host.
The core complies with the USB standard for full-speed (12-Mbit/s) functions. It supports session-control and host-negotiation protocols. And, it's configurable for up to 15 additional transmit endpoints and 15 additional receive endpoints. Also included is a PVCI-compatible CPU interface. An AMBA-AHB bridge is optional.
USB device-layer firmware is provided to facilitate peripheral application-code development. The firmware gives designers "hooks" for application-specific software, such as a host stack, and handles device configuration and control management. It's delivered in C for embedded development tools and compiles from 10 to 20 kbytes.
The Inventra MUSBFDRXC soft IP core and evaluation board will be available in the second quarter. A reference design for On-The-Go configurations will be available early in the first quarter for developers. Contact Mentor for pricing and delivery information.
Mentor Graphics Corp., (503) 685-7000; www.mentor.com/inventra.