Sony built the fastest USB 3.0 Flash Drive (that I know of) to date.

I actually have to measure this myself, but the stated numbers from Sony’s website are

60 MB/s for the 8 GB drive and

120MB/s for the 16/32/64GB drives.

Our fastest USB 3.0 Flash drive in the lab is the Super Talent which runs at about 74 MB/s for the 16 GB version.

This makes the Sony Drive about 60% faster than the Super Talent.

Caveats to this after this table from Sony’s website below:

Caveats – The first and fastest USB 3.0 Flash Drive was actually a SuperTalent drive at 128GB.  It was a raid drive, so it had at least 2 banks of memory to allow for faster, reads from the drive. This wasn’t a mass market drive. It cost $600 for one drive.  The SuperTalent 16GB drive is $20.  The Sony will probably be in the same price range.

So for the moment, I’m guessing that the Sony Micro Vault will be the best performing USB 3.0 Flash Drive for consumers for awhile.  I’m also guessing it uses more expensive flash memory for faster access, it probably also uses a raid type configuration as well for faster performance for the larger capacities of 16GB and more.  I’m just guessing.

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Please.

Pretty Please.

Happy New Year!

Yes, it’s still Happy.

My understanding: The world won’t end in 2012.

Which is great because according to the Ismail Rahman, CTO of the USB-IF says, that Mobile Phones and Tablets will support USB 3.0 in 2012 (PC World USB 3.0 in Smart Phones and Tablets article) 

Smartphones and tablets will also recharge faster through USB 3.0, as the power will flow faster than in USB 2.0, says Rahman

This is because a USB 3.0 Host port will provide up to 900mA of power for charging, which is more than the 500mA supplied by USB 2.0.  So he’s correct.

One thing PC World asks/says/challenges Ismail on:

But transferring data using the current USB 3.0 technology at such high data rates requires more power, which does not fit the profile of mobile devices.

Ismail responds:

"It’s not the failure of USB per se, it’s just that in tablets they are not looking to put the biggest, fastest things inside a tablet," Ismail said.

He’s correct.  Another awesome response I might give is:

“Actually, USB 3.0 is more power efficient.  It transmits then shuts down.  USB 2.0 has a Host transmitting all the time with every device receiving signals all the time.

Also, at 10x the speed for only about 2x the power (in general) in means that a 10 minute transaction only 1 minute.  Then it turns off.  So it’s off for 9 minutes for USB 3.0 compared to USB 2.0.  So the power consumption is only 20% of USB 2.0.  So the battery lasts longer, about 5x longer just for the transfers…  USB 3.0 is better out of the box.”

There are some conditions, some secrets to the design at the system level to make sure this happen.  Basically, you need to be able to suspend the power to as much of the USB 3.0 elements as possible or shut down the power completely.

So Rahman points out USB 3.0 is coming to Tablets and Smart Phones in 2012, and theoretically he’s got some product knowledge as the CTO of the USB-IF.  I’m wondering if this is the TI OMAP 5 platform as announced by TI or something else?

USB at Home

You can install USB outlets at home for a mere $25.  Each port provides a full 1mA of charging which is good for charging your iPad or Kindle or Android phone, or BlackBerry or maybe your digital camera or cell phone. Got to FastMac.com for more info.   I know I could use them.

Today’s Donut Picture

I have a picture of a Tray of Donuts. I’m keeping it to myself.

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Please.

Pretty Please.

So it’s happened, the company the company that invested USB, and drove USB 2.0 and now USB 3.0 to success has certified their own USB 3.0 Host Controllers.  The USB-IF announcement image (and hyperlink) is below.

It looks like the Series 7 chips set goes into standard PCs that you and I will buy, so mostly laptops and desktops.  The C216 series appears to be for servers.

A link to the press release is here: http://www.usb.org/press/USB-IF_PantherPoint_FINAL.pdf.

AMD’s Certified PC Chipset – Where is it?

This follows AMD’s press release from back in April 2011 of a certified chipset.  We haven’t seen either in mass production, but we might guess that both will time their releases to coincide with wide scale Windows support.

Windows 8 with USB 3.0

Combined with the Microsoft Windows 8 announcement and demonstration of USB 3.0, Intel’s announcement means we are on the path to 1 Billions USB 3.0 enabled products in 2 years as consumers look to attach something to these speedy SuperSpeed USB 3.0 ports.

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Because you read this blog, you already know that DisplayLink has taped-out a chip and started a second chip from our press release in October 2011.

DisplayLink makes a USB 3.0 to HDMI or DVI converter.

If you clicked on that image above, and nothing happened, it’s because it’s not a hyperlink, it’s just a picture.

The Video is below.

Here’s DisplayLink’s Theo Goguely talking about their product using the Synopsys USB 3.0 Device IP, USB 3.0 PHY IP, and HDMI Tx IP.

Here’s the 2 products that DisplayLink’s Theo Goguely demonstrated.

DisplayLink customer product #1: The IOData USB 3.0 to HDMI/DVI adapter using the DisplayLink chip.  Shown below.

DisplayLink customer product #2: And the Targus USB 3.0 Docking Station which you can buy at Office Depot, or just Google “Targus USB 3.0 Docking Station”

This Docking station includes a USB 3.0 Hub, and the DisplayLink chip downstream to provide the 2 video outputs.

In addition, DisplayLink customer product #3: The HIS USB 3.0 to HDMI adapter Here’s a 3rd USB 3.0 product that I found on the DisplayLink website.

Here’s where you can buy the HIS USB 3.0 to HDMI video adapter on NewEgg

And today’s Pastry selection

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Words will never hurt me.

Unless they are mean words.

HP’s all in one TouchSmart 520 PC has 2 USB 3.0 Ports included in a beautiful, single unit touchscreen PC.

It has a BluRay burner, which is pretty cool too.  So HP beats Apple in features here. Read the PCWorld Review article here.

ADATA now waterproofed USB drives, so you can carry these around when you go scuba diving or stir your coffee with them.

You should note that the top speeds of these USB 3.0 drivers is 100 MB per second.

Top USB 2.0 speeds are 35 MB per second. Top USB 3.0 speeds are 350MB per second.

The ADATA speed is still 3x the speed of USB 2.0 which is definitely faster.  The speed limiting factor is actually the flash memory. It uses memory more expensive than memory found in today’s USB 2.0 drives, but still slower than needed to get the fastest USB 3.0 speeds.  Just keep this in mind.

The Kindle & USB – Viewer Mail

Ned writes in “"Interesting blog about the Kindle Fire and iPad.  I can’t, however, figure out what it has to do with USB…”

(Ned isn’t his real name.)

I’m glad you asked this question Ned.

This Tablet, the Kindle has only one wired interface, it’s USB 2.0.  It’s used for both charging and for content transfer.

For example, If you keep your music in the “Amazon Cloud” you can download via WiFi.

But, most people (I think) already have their entire MP3 library on a USB hard drive or a PC or both somewhere.

So it’s a lot faster to plug your Kindle Fire into a laptop or PC, and transfer all your Britney Spears and Rihanna music to your device.

You could upload your music to the Amazon Cloud, or even the Apple iCloud.  You’d then have access anywhere. And you could stream to your device.

Of course you need Wi-Fi or Broadband access to download these items.  So you still want to download with USB 2.0.

Why do you care?

Well, you’ll still need to charge your device now and in 2014.

And you’ll have even more content.

And you might not be willing to pay for a huge “cloud” to store all your data.

Are you going to trust all your kid’s photos to a single, on-line storage facility at Amazon or Apple?

Will you pay $500 a year for the storage, when a USB 3.0 drive costs only $100?

No.

You buy 2 USB 3.0 hard drives. You store your stuff there, and keep a small amount on the cloud.

So you will have USB 2.0 now and USB 3.0 soon on all your tablets and smart phones so you can keep carrying around a gazillion videos you recorded, pictures you took, and movies/TV shows you want to watch.

Kindle Fire TechRepublic Teardown

Here’s a picture from the TechRepublic teardown of the Kindle Fire.

It’s interesting to me because the RAM chip is mounted directly on top of the TI OMAP 4430 chip underneath.  As a digital guy I don’t know why someone does this, except to improve performance, and maybe lower power required.  Someone send me an e-mail to explain why or post a comment below.

You will see the TI OMAP 4430 actually appears to have 2 USB controllers.

One is an HSOTG port on the top right.

The other is in the bottom left, and looks like a USB 2.0 Host controller.

The new OMAP 5 platform as has 1 USB DRD port and 3 USB 3.0 ports. Block diagram and description can be seen here in my earlier blog entry on OMAP 5 and Tablets.

So TI’s already moving the next platform onto USB 3.0, so in 2 years we would see TI OMAP tablets with USB 3.0.

Donut

Post your questions in the comments below (or send me e-mails)

And here’s today’s Donut.

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Eric’s Kindle Fire

I opened my Kindle Fire today (upon returning from Asia).
I’m pleased but underwhelmed.

First Impressions:

1) Great Screen
2) Heavier than Kindle 3rd Generation, much heavier than iPod
3) Fast Browsing
4) Interface as responsive as the iPad
5) I have no content (except for lots of books with talking animals in those books).

But, I can stream video from Amazon Prime, so that is a bonus. I can now cancel my Netflix account completely after 4 years, despite a tiny selection of streaming videos.

I can also borrow 1 book a month from Amazon’s lending library as long as I pay for Amazon Prime.

Still it isn’t an iPad, or an iPod or an iPhone.

For $200 it’s a great deal for anyone looking for a tablet for e-mail and light surfing and buying lots of stuff on Amazon.

It has a larger screen than the iPod at $200, but you won’t go running with a Kindle Fire strapped to your arm either. 

One thing the Kindle Fire does not do is Text-To-Speech.  So, I guess Amazon doesn’t really love me. (Yes I’m still mining original Kindle review because it’s the one people have most commented on or e-mailed me about.) You can read how free donuts go together with Kindles here.

Formatting blogs – We switched our website around. We were continually getting hacked.  I have no idea why anyone would hack my lousy blog.  So the formatting on this might really be bad.  If so, I apologize, and applaud your efforts as you read down this page.

International Flights – Kindles and iPads

I noticed lots and lots of people with either Kindles or iPads.  I noticed more people reading on their iPads than I normally do.

I sat next a some poor CEO who got stuck in a middle seat in economy with people like me sitting on the aisle.  She said, "This is going to sound stupid, but I mostly read on my iPad." "I don’t play games," she said.

So I guess the KindleFire gets the Amazon crowd to upgrade to a color screen (and staying up  all night reading because of the active light source keeping their brains awake).

Amazon also grabs the people that stood outside HP (next door to us) to get a TouchPad who actually didn’t stand outside, but want a supported product.

My point is: Apparently, a lot of people read, and they like to read, but this Tablet extends the reach to other people who don’t read, but want a nifty, cheap tablet. (It’s possible that reading and wanting a nifty tablet are not mutually exclusive as well)

Yes, I know, if you’ve followed the Kindle Fire launch at all this isn’t new.  I have to say, I’m a bit underwhelmed at the moment, but after I transfer some legal video content from my Tivo to my Kindle Fire, I might feel better.

(Late Note: I found that I have a digital copy of “The Dark Knight” in the Amazon Cloud, so I’m listening to that while I finish this entry. In just 5 seconds it had enough downloaded to start playing the movie).

The thing that I like about the iPad 2, is that when I buy a video or app, it automatically downloads to my desktop, and I can sync the content with all my other devices quickly.  I can’t do that with my Kindle, and I’m not planning on re-buying content, so I might end up buying another iPad rather than 2 more Kindles.  I don’t know yet.

40+ Designs, 30+ Customers for USB 3.0 digital IP and PHYs

I’m really proud of our R&D and Support teams who built and supported tape-outs of real products in real chips at real customers like DisplayLink and Realtek.

I should point out the 40+ design wins are for actual ASICs that have already started, or have finished, and not just FPGA prototypes.  Corporate strictly regulates formal announcements, so we provide the most accurate data we have. We count real USB 3.0 products.

Here’s a video from DisplayLink explaining why they buy IP from suppliers that have lots of customers.

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I’m still trying to figure out how you subscribe your enemies automatically. I think that might be considered bad, but they are your enemies, so why do you care?

I’M HITTING “PUBLISH” NOW AND HOPING THIS GETS TO THE INTERNET.

Eric’s Kindle Fire

I opened my Kindle Fire today (upon returning from Asia).
I’m pleased but underwhelmed.

First Impressions:

1) Great Screen
2) Heavier than Kindle 3rd Generation, much heavier than iPod
3) Fast Browsing
4) Interface as responsive as the iPad
5) I have no content (except for lots of books with talking animals in those books).

But, I can stream video from Amazon Prime, so that is a bonus. I can now cancel my Netflix account completely after 4 years, despite a tiny selection of streaming videos.

I can also borrow 1 book a month from Amazon’s lending library as long as I pay for Amazon Prime.

Still it isn’t an iPad, or an iPod or an iPhone.

For $200 it’s a great deal for anyone looking for a tablet for e-mail and light surfing and buying lots of stuff on Amazon.

It has a larger screen than the iPod at $200, but you won’t go running with a Kindle Fire strapped to your arm either. 

One thing the Kindle Fire does not do is Text-To-Speech.  So, I guess Amazon doesn’t really love me. (Yes I’m still mining original Kindle review because it’s the one people have most commented on or e-mailed me about.) You can read how free donuts go together with Kindles here.

Formatting blogs – We switched our website around. We were continually getting hacked.  I have no idea why anyone would hack my lousy blog.  So the formatting on this might really be bad.  If so, I apologize, and applaud your efforts as you read down this page.

International Flights – Kindles and iPads

I noticed lots and lots of people with either Kindles or iPads.  I noticed more people reading on their iPads than I normally do.

I sat next a some poor CEO who got stuck in a middle seat in economy with people like me sitting on the aisle.  She said, "This is going to sound stupid, but I mostly read on my iPad." "I don’t play games," she said.

So I guess the KindleFire gets the Amazon crowd to upgrade to a color screen (and staying up  all night reading because of the active light source keeping their brains awake).

Amazon also grabs the people that stood outside HP (next door to us) to get a TouchPad who actually didn’t stand outside, but want a supported product.

My point is: Apparently, a lot of people read, and they like to read, but this Tablet extends the reach to other people who don’t read, but want a nifty, cheap tablet. (It’s possible that reading and wanting a nifty tablet are not mutually exclusive as well)

Yes, I know, if you’ve followed the Kindle Fire launch at all this isn’t new.  I have to say, I’m a bit underwhelmed at the moment, but after I transfer some legal video content from my Tivo to my Kindle Fire, I might feel better.

(Late Note: I found that I have a digital copy of “The Dark Knight” in the Amazon Cloud, so I’m listening to that while I finish this entry. In just 5 seconds it had enough downloaded to start playing the movie).

The thing that I like about the iPad 2, is that when I buy a video or app, it automatically downloads to my desktop, and I can sync the content with all my other devices quickly.  I can’t do that with my Kindle, and I’m not planning on re-buying content, so I might end up buying another iPad rather than 2 more Kindles.  I don’t know yet.

40+ Designs, 30+ Customers for USB 3.0 digital IP and PHYs

I’m really proud of our R&D and Support teams who built and supported tape-outs of real products in real chips at real customers like DisplayLink and Realtek.

I should point out the 40+ design wins are for actual ASICs that have already started, or have finished, and not just FPGA prototypes.  Corporate strictly regulates formal announcements, so we provide the most accurate data we have. We count real USB 3.0 products.

Here’s a video from DisplayLink explaining why they buy IP from suppliers that have lots of customers.

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I’m still trying to figure out how you subscribe your enemies automatically. I think that might be considered bad, but they are your enemies, so why do you care?

I’M HITTING “PUBLISH” NOW AND HOPING THIS GETS TO THE INTERNET.

All USB Storage products, Flash Drives, Thumb Drives, Hard Drives, and SSDs use a transfer protocol called “Bulk Only Transfer” or “BOT” protocol.  This works reliably in Windows and Linux and other operating systems. 

In USB, a Bulk Transfers refers to a transfer of data that must be 100% accurate when it arrives. No errors can be allowed.  For example, if you are copying pictures from your camera to your computer, you want every color pixel to be 100% accurate.  The same is true for printing a picture.

It also means the data does not need to arrive at a certain time.  If an error occurs in a Bulk transmission, the system retries until the data accurately moves to the destination. 

BOT is highly reliable, but the hard drive companies knew that with USB 3.0 a new method would be needed.  BOT basically sends a single packet at a time.  This works well for USB 2.0.

USB 3.0 lets you send packets along multiple USB 3.0 “streams.”  To take advantage of this, Storage companies created a new USB Driver Class, a purely software feature, to enable faster USB transfers on USB 3.0. called “USB Attached SCSI Protocol” or “UASP.”  UASP allows you to send packets along multiple streams in parallel, and even burst the data faster.

ASUS published a web page that does a fantastic job illustrating how UASP works with an animation sequence. I recommend you click on the image ASUS website below and take a look at it.

I should point out you need a hard drive or SSD that supports UASP inside the hard drive’s firmware to support this.

In the USB community, we’ve actually debated the usefulness of UASP.  In our lab, we performance increases of 6-10% for early applications.

In a test of the ASUS motherboard with a UASP enabled ASMedia Hard Drive, shows a speed bump of about 33-37Megabytes per second going from about 261 to 293 Megabytes per second, or about a 13% increase in speed.

Today, mass market hard drives today won’t deliver data fast enough because they use SATA 3 Gb/s instead of the faster 6Gb/s. Most hard drives bridge from SATA to USB 3.0.  Since USB 3.0 has a maximum effective throughput of about 4Gb/s, this is faster than existing SATA 3/Gb/s drives.  SATA can be limiting.  Within 2 years, this will change because hard drives will have either SATA 6Gb/s support, or native USB 3.0 support so SATA will not be the bottleneck.

Note:
   3 Gigabits/second = 3Gb/s = 300 MB/s = 300 Megabytes/second
   4 Gb/s = 400 MB/s
   6 Gb/s = 600 MB/s

If you are building a USB 3.0 product today, it means you will deploy in about 12-18 months which means you should plan for UASP support or at least investigate UASP for your application.

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TI has a concept video demonstrating how their OMAP based phones could pay for a taxi ride. I found a taxi in Tokyo that supports exactly this kind of mobile payment.

The blue dot on the right is where you waive your cell phone.  In Japan the primary Near Field Communications (NFC) appears to be Felica for Felicity Card.  After reading the Wikipedia entry on FeLica I was surprised to discover it’s the de facto standard in Japan and used pretty much in every part of the world also

I couldn’t find anything on-line on the system in this Japanese cab, but I’m curious to know if it is the same or different than the TI OMAP technology, or if the OMAP platform uses FeLica or some other technology. 

I found another technology called Kazzam where you could pay using an App on your iPhone.  It seems cumbersome since you have to type in the cab number and such, which to me seems harder than just swiping your phone across a blue dot.  Maybe it would work combined with FeLica so you could swipe, get the info in and just press approve.

SmartPhone Based Alternatives – Cheaper, but harder to use

But Kazzam or any App based system is a lot easier to deploy since it requires only existing Smart Phones (no special hardware in the cab or on the phone.  You just put a Smart Phone in the Cab Driver’s hand to get an acknowledgement that the person has paid. It would probably even work with a standard cell phone with a text message that says, “The person in the back seat with the iPhone 7 has just paid so you can unlock the back doors and let them out”

Back to Japan

I love the Suica card system in Japan. You add cash to a card that uses FeLica, and you just swipe the card over a reader at the gate entrance to the train station. 

And, you can use it to buy food at train station food places and convenience stores.  It is also built into some cell phones as shown below, but most people in Japan will simply put the Suica in their wallet, or inside their cell phone case, so they don’t need to buy the cell phone with the Suica tech built into the phone.

I’m sure this exists elsewhere in the world, I just don’t get to see it.  In China, I just buy single trip tickets to ride in trains that were built in Japan.

Google iPhone 4S or iPhone 5 and you will get about gazillion hits, hopefully including this Blog

Smartphones drive the need for USB 3.0 in digital cameras and digital video cameras to

From the Apple event Monday

“We’re now on to the camera in the iPhone 4S. “We set our sights on competing with the best point-and-shoot cameras,” Mr. Schiller says. The camera has an 8-megapixel sensor, 60 percent more pixels than the iPhone 4’s camera. It has a backside-illuminated CMOS sensor that captures 73 percent more light. It’s 33 percent faster.” 

                                       – At Apple meeting per NYTimes Blog linked below

This means:

1) Smartphone you buy from Apple (and soon Google and RIM) pretty much can replace mid-range digital cameras.

2) Anyone in the middle to upper income range, every teenager, now doesn’t need to buy a separate digital camera (they probably seldom do anyways)

3) Enthusiasts who like great pictures, have a better mobile phone camera, and don’t need to buy a separate camera.

4) Camera makers had better add features like embedded memory, and USB 3.0 to make their cameras and video cameras viable

Digital Video Camera makers already have lots of storage inside the camera, and usually an SD card slot.  DVCs need USB 3.0 now.

DSCs should follow quickly, if you don’t move now, you will lose to those moving already.

Here links to Live Blog coverage of the Apple Event at the Wired Blog and  the NYTimes Blog and the Wired Blog

Thanks to Steve Jobs

I’m tremendously grateful to Steve Jobs for his drive, his creativity, his tenacity that really pushed everyone to Think Different. 

The Tech World remade itself multiple times in his lifetime directly due to his influence, effectively creating new realms of creativity, competitiveness, entertainment and utility.

Many Thanks Mr. Jobs.

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