3D drives 3.0

I can’t fill a 1 Terabyte drive with personal media yet, and I generate about 4 GB of digital pictures and video a month.

I can however fill an HD DVR in about 3 months.  I recorded a single episode of the new Hawaii-Five-O (from the writers of “Star Trek”) and it took up over 7GB on my HD TIVO.  Combined with “Fringe”, “House”, “Top Chef”, “Grey’s Anatomy”, “Bakugan”, “Pokemon”, and “Stargate Universe.”  I need storage space.

I really need to add an external drive to my HD DVR and USB 3.0 would be the right way to do it.  If all TV programming goes 3D, then the file size will go up to 14 GB per 1 hour episode (7GB per eye).

You may not watch TV, but a lot of people spend their money on this stuff.

And you thought you wouldn’t learn anything today reading this blog.

ASUS Media Player with USB 3.0

ASUS launches the first consumer product with USB 3.0.  As reported by Engadget here, the box supports just about every storage card in the market, AND it has USB 3.0 Host receptacle to accept USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 flash drives.

Since the decoder accepts all kinds of video formats, it looks like you could use it to view Home Videos from your DVC or DSC.

Verbatim and Western Digital USB 3.0 Hard Drives

Verbatim announced a portable hard drive supporting up to 1 TB.  If you can believe that.  So if your IT department only gives you 100GB of disk space, buy one of these and hang it off your PC in your office.

And you can take your work home with you.

Western Digital announced both Portable USB 3.0 Hard Drives and a 3 Terabyte USB 3.0 Book Shelf Hard Drive.  

Picture on left is from PCWorld here

Boring SuperSpeed USB 3.0

Honestly, Reading through all the new USB 3.0 products coming out can be tedious with at least 3 new products a week now.  It’s humorous that some members of the press really feel the need to knock USB 3.0 every chance they get.

FreeBSD gets USB 3.0 Support

You can now get USB 3.0 XHCI Host  Drivers from multiple sources:

1) NEC – Bundled with your PC or add-in Card if it has an NEC Host
2) MCCI – Supports Windows 7/Vista/XP. Portable to other OS’s. You can see our videos with them by clicking on the “USB Videos” catagory to your left.
3) Linux – Available for download since December 2008.
         Start here http://www.linux-usb.org/ for general Linux USB support 
4) FreeBSD just announced support also.  You can get FreeBSD USB 3.0 drivers here
                     

Just the expanding universe of USB Software support.

Bionic Exoskeleton

This inspiring technology helps paraplegics walk with assistance.  It could also speed rehabilitation for those that need assistance.

If you watch the video, you’ll learn that this is still in the prototype stage.  Commercialization for consumer use is probably some ways off. It really excites me to see technology make a dramatic and measureable difference.

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We launched our USB Software Alliance program last week with our participants, Emsys, Jungo, MCCI, and MicroDigital.

Although we provide reference drivers and programming guides for our USB Cores (and other cores too), many of our customer outsource their software drivers to other companies. Projects differ.  A cell phone, digital camera, or a set top box require different USB drivers for different functions. Operating systems vary.  You might need drivers that go inside the device (peripheral) or on the PC or both.

These companies have all developed drivers and stacks that run on the Synopsys USB Cores.  Some provide Software Development Kits and some provide full services including customization, testing, and on-site support.

Take a look at our USB Software Alliance announcement then take a look at our Alliance members.

Fastest SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Performance in the West

I should have titled my last entry “Fastest SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Performance in the West” or something like that, but,  “No,” I titled it a ridiculously long title that no one would ever click on.   It was the fastest performance I’ve seen, so hopefully it’s the fastest you’ve seen now.  Look below or search the archives for “USB Video” to see the video.

34 days without an iPod Touch

I’ve been using my wife’s iPod Touch (in a Pink Case) to get me through the next few weeks.  Entire websites are devoted to the next generation of iPod, and this just amazes me.  If it really has a camera and video conferencing, I’ll buy a second one to give to my mom, so she can video conference with my kids.

Elderly iPad Users

My dad, who’s not elderly in my opinion, pre-ordered an iPad.  This BusinessWeek article confirms what I’ve already seen.

Seniors:

1. Have Money
2. Like the Intuitive Interface
3. Have Free time and curiosity
4. Like to stay connected to others
5. Have Money

Basically, the intuitive interface, and range of applications, like games that stave off dementia, make it either a great gift item, or a great tech toy.

USB IP at IDF

We will demonstrating our IP and USB IP including:

• SuperSpeed USB 3.0 PHY
• SuperSpeed USB 3.0 xHCI Host
• SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Device
• Synopsys HAPS FPGA prototyping platforms
• PCI Express 3.0 (Gen 3) Solution
• SATA Solution

Register now for IDF and find us on the exhibit floor

USB 3.0 and new standards

I’ve written before that USB 2.0 basically doesn’t cut it for some consumer applications, this will really make some consumers really, really happy.

Watch this space Thursday for a new standards proposal that will use USB 3.0 create, story, carry, and transfer videos, music, pictures and more. I’m not kidding.