Fujitsu and Lenovo announced USB 3.0 Docking Stations both using the DisplayLink USB 3.0 to HDMI chip.

Fujitsu USB 3.0 Docking Station

The ThinkPad Lenovo USB 3.0 Docking Station also has the DisplayLink chip in it. It’s a pretty sleek design.

To celebrate the availability of these two terrific USB 3.0 products, I’m posting a demo showing exactly what a docking station like this can do.

USB 3.0 Docking Station–A real product bought off Amazon

The most important part about demonstrating the USB 3.0 Gold Tree with USB 2.0 peripherals, is that you can plug them all in and they “just work”  So your existing web cam, keyboards, mice, speakers, headphones, printers should all work just like we tested here.

We loaded the driver, and changed nothing in our setup and the USB 3.0 docking station worked.

My point: If you buy a USB 3.0 Docking Station it will work with your USB 2.0 stuff AND it might be the last one you buy for 10 years.

Think about buying a Fujitsu USB 3.0 Port Replicator, ThinkPad USB 3.0 Docking Station, or Targus USB 3.0 Docking Station.

As I read these articles, I realized that my lousy PCIexpress based docking station causes a Blue Screen of Death about 1 in 10 times I re-dock. So I’m going to steal a Targus USB 3.0 Docking station from the lab and replace the one on my desk.  I’m actually excited about this.

Here’s the original demo of the Targus docking station from DisplayLink recorded last year.

I described this docking station to my Dad, and he wants one.

I think my Dad doesn’t read my blog, and therefore doesn’t deserve a cool USB 3.0 Docking Station.

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Thank you for reading this blog.

Last week I wrote

“Remember Mother’s Day is May 12th in the U.S. Celebrate and send your mother a link to this blog.”

Today, Vijay (I guy I don’t talk to) walked by my office and said to me

“I sent it (your blog) to my wife’s mom”

without saying anything else before or after.

I have to wonder Vijay likes or dislike’s his wife’s mom.

Vijay’s name has been changed to protect the innocent.

I’m not sure who is innocent however.

Synopsys worked with the USB-IF SSIC Working Group to develop a SSIC Proof of Concept demonstration. 

The USB-IF has been working on SSIC for some time.

This Proof of Concept in FPGA is to test the SSIC specification version 0.90 to see if it actually works in hardware.

It worked (mostly).

We learned, as expected, the SSIC Spec needs changes.

We learned what works and fixes need to be made to the specification.

We used our own HAPS FPGA platforms and standard PCs.  The HAPS51-2s are connected to the PCs with PCIe.  The FPGA boards are shown below.

On top (left side of table) we have a modified USB 3.0 Host for SSIC.

On bottom (right side of table) we have a modified USB 3.0 Device for SSIC.

There is no USB 3.0 PHY in this set up.  Read to end for more on the PHY used.

Take note:  FPGA-Based Prototyping is a good idea as part of specification development too.

As with our standard USB 3.0 Host and Device, we could close timing in the FPGAs at 125MHz even when the FPGA design is over 80% utilized.

We’ve edited 2 versions the SSIC Proof of Concept video for your viewing pleasure. 

A short version and a long version.

The short version focuses on the hardware setup and the demonstration.  It’s posted below.

SSIC Proof of Concept – Short Version

This is Shailesh and I just before we started the demo.

What is the point?

The SSIC USB-IF WG has both proven the SSIC concept works, and improved it using FPGA-based prototyping.  The USB 3.0 can be used with the SSIC modifications to use USB 3.0 on PCB for chip-to-chip communication with less power than USB 3.0 outside the box.  It preserves software so you continue to use existing USB 3.0 drivers and stacks.

What is SSIC?

See the previous entry here for a brief description.

It will be used to connect Applications Processor chips to other USB 3.0 peripherals inside the box, on PCB.  It is a chip-to-chip protocol. 

For example, it could be used to connect a Mobile Apps Processer to a WiFi baseband chip.  The Apps processor could use the same, unmodified USB drivers it uses for an external, USB plug in WiFi modem.   It uses USB 3.0 to communicate, but it can less power because it drives signals over a few centimeters of PCB, not 3 meters of USB 3.0 Cable.  SSIC uses a different M-PHY for SSIC.   It uses less power.  We don’t use an M-PHY in the SSIC Proof of Concept.

 

Caveat and Disclaimer

This is not a product and this is not a product announcement.  This is a working demonstration of the technology.

Read to the End

The long version is 7 minutes and has a lot of detail and is only for the most brave USB viewers.   It has a more detail detail on how the two boards are connected.  So I lied.  There is no detail how the two platforms are connected when the USB 3.0 PHY is not used. You have to wait until Thursday and watch that video.

See you Thursday.

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I wanted to post the short video first and post the long video later, but someone pointed out to me that no one is going to ever watch these videos twice.

So I separated them anyways because you were going to come back on Thursday anyway.

Here you will see demonstrated the fastest USB 3.0 IP in the Universe*.  Or at least the fastest published numbers that isn’t marketing hype.

This demo shows SuperSpeed USB 3.0 effective throughput:

1. SuperSpeed USB 3.0 can really move data.
2. Synopsys USB 3.0 IP can really move data.

The demonstration includes our USB 3.0 xHCI Host Controller, USB 3.0 Device Controller, and USB 3.0 PHYs.

You have to actually watch the video to get see the effective throughput.

The Fastest USB 3.0 IP in the Universe

First, I have to say that that is about the most awesome thumbnail picture of me yet.  Thank you YouTube!

Second, we optimized the PC systems as follows:

1. RAM Drive on the Mass Storage Device side – This is a lot faster than a flash drive, an HDD, or an SSD.  There’s no SATA or PCIe for the data to pass through, so there is zero latency from an additional protocol.  The RAM is right next to the USB controller so there is basically zero read/write latency.
2. Windows 7 with an MCCI USB 3.0 xHCI Host Stack – Somehow MCCI engineered this so it’s faster than stacks we’ve seen packed with off-the-shelf Host cards.
3. Nothing else is running on the USB bus or PCIe bus on the PC.  Very little is running on the PC.
4. Standard PCs built with standard parts with SSDs (which aren’t really necessary but we wanted to make sure)
5. Our IP – Our USB 3.0 PHY IP, Our USB 3.0 Host IP, and Our USB 3.0 Device IP.

Okay, if you know a demo that is faster, send me the link or post the link below.  I haven’t seen a faster demo using a standard benchmarking tool.

Remember

Synopsys USB 3.0 IP can move data really, really fast.

 

Blooper Video

Somehow that Japan IP Team video hit over 330 hits as of the writing of this blog.

I will post it Thursday U.S. Time.

Probably.

 

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*It might not be the fastest USB 3.0 demonstration in the universe.  The title was to get your attention. Still try and find a demo, a real demo that is faster.

**A limit of 10 donuts will be given out.  Offer void where prohibited by law. (This means this offer is no good if it’s illegal where you are. I don’t know why it would be illegal.  Maybe the local authorities don’t like donuts.)

Most people don’t have a clue what goes on with USB 3.0 Certification (or USB 2.0 Certification).

So here’s a video of our USB 3.0 xHCI Host interoperating with a whole bunch of USB products.    These products are arranged into a USB Gold Tree as specified by the USB-IF.

USB 3.0 xHCI Host Certification Test–USB 3.0 Interoperability with USB Gold Tree

We use the MCCI USB 3.0 xHCI Host Stack running on Windows 7.

To my knowledge, this is the only time anyone’s ever been crazy enough to post a video demonstration of the USB Gold Tree.

You can see you need to work with USB 3.0, USB 2.0, and USB 1.1 Devices.

The USB 3.0 Gold Tree uses

• USB 3.0 Hub and USB 3.0 Flash Drive for Super Speed Bulk In and Out Transfers
• Four USB 2.0 Hubs
• Two USB 2.0 Web Cams for Hi-Speed USB 2.0 Isochronous Transfers and Interrupt Transfers
• USB 2.0/1.1 USB Headset with Microphone for USB 2.0/1.1 Isochronous Transfers
• Two USB 2.0 Flash Drives for Hi-Speed USB 2.0 Bulk In and Out Transfers
• Keyboards and Mice for Low Speed USB 1.1 Interrupt Transfers
• And not visible underneath is a USB 2.0 Printer for more Bulk Out Transfers and Interrupt Transfers.

In this way, it’s possible to test for all the different types of USB traffic.

The USB 3.0 xHCI Host is implemented on our HAPS FPGA-Based Prototyping Platform with our Synopsys USB 3.0 PHY.

For all the details on USB Compliance (and this is really for your USB engineers) go to http://compliance.usb.org/

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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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Leave comments below, even if you disagree with me. 

Words will never hurt me.

Unless they are mean words.

Here’s a awesome video showing our USB 3.0 xHCI Host IP, and USB 3.0 Device IP on our HAPS platform with our USB 3.0 PHY IP Test Chips

We did this demonstration at IDF last fall, and you will see the performance is much faster that all of the published performance by, well pretty much everyone even now, 11 months later.

We optimized the controller, and the PHY, and the drivers to achieve these speeds.

You will notice that our USB 3.0 xHCI Host & PHY running MCCI’s Win 7 drivers and and the USB 3.0 Device & PHY have no problem achieving these speeds.

The HAPS boards with our controller design in FPGA also easily supports USB 3.0.  We use our PCIe controller to connect to the PCIe on the PCs so there is no latency introduced there. 

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DisplayLink now has the worlds first & only USB 3.0 to Dual Display Video Chip available for OEMs. 

Here’s a demonstration of their DisplayLink with us at IDF.

The chip lets you daisy chain up to 6 USB monitors, which means that the bandwidth of USB 3.0 let’s you run 6 displays running 1080p video.

Video Compression over USB 3.0

DisplayLink’s Jason Slaughter explains why DisplayLink uses Video Compression to move HD video over USB 3.0. 

So the compression is necessary to overcome any system latencies and provide the responsiveness we expect from our computers. 

Question of the Day

What’s significant about a Dual Display Chip?  Why would I want this?

Answer in the comments below.

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We’ve achieved read speeds of 320 Megabytes per second (MBps) with the following configuration:

Synopsys USB 3.0 xHCI Host Controller

• Running on the Synopsys HAPS 51FXT FPGA
• With our Synopsys SuperSpeed USB 3.0 65nm PHY
• On Windows 7
• Running the MCCI USB 3.0 Host Stack and Drivers

On the Device side we use the Synopsys USB 3.0 xHCI Host Controller

• Running on the Synopsys HAPS 51FXT FPGA
• With our Synopsys SuperSpeed USB 3.0 65nm PHY
• On Linux
• Running Synopsys Mass Storage Reference Firmware

Our 320 MBps Read Speed means our Host, Device, and PHY with the MCCI Drivers runs faster than any other combination out there.

Here’s the demo video

So we can achieve these speeds with our USB IP (cores and PHYs).    This is the fastest we’ve see yet.  If you’ve seen faster speeds, let me know.

Latest USB 3.0 Performance – 5 Flash Drives

The latest speeds I’ve seen published can be found at Tom’s Hardware here.  In the review of 5 USB 3.0 Flash Drives/SSDs including the OCZ Enyo, Walton Chaintech, SuperTalent (2 versions) and PQI SSD S533-Es.  If you read through the data, you will see that most of the devices read at up to about 180 to 190 MBps, with the fastest reads at up to 220 MBps.  This is about 6-7x faster than the typical USB 2.0 performance of 32MBps.

As I’ve mentioned before, there are a lot of reasons for this potential slowness relative to where USB 3.0 should be including:

On the Host Side

• Host Controller latencies/quality
• Host Operating System latencies
• Host Stacks and Drivers

On the Device Side

• Device Controller (on the peripheral) latencies/quality
• Device OS latencies
• Device Stacks and Drivers
• Quality of the PHYs on both the Host and the Device
• Latencies to access the Device memories

So while the performance of the devices tested by Tom’s hardware, it can be better.  It should be better. 
In fairness to the devices, the quality of the Flash makes a big difference, and if the device uses cheap, cheap flash, access times will be slow because cheap flash just doesn’t have fast access.

(I’d like to point out that our demonstration achieves 10x USB 2.0 speeds, with Windows 7 and MCCI drivers and our PHY and our controllers, without any optimization on our part yet)

Samsung demonstrated a USB only monitor at the Society for Information Display conference last week in Oregon.  The screen uses a forked USB 2.0 connector to provide the power necessary.  This is only possible because this is an edge-lit LED display.

The pictures and the full article are from TechOn here and in the link below

Also, at Everything USB, the author speculates that with USB 3.0 you could maybe use a single USB 3.0 port. I’ve run the math below and my commentary is at the end of this blog entry.

I should point out that some USB 2.0 devices pull more than the legal 500mA from a Host, and when they do, they violate the specification.

The interesting thing that TechOn reports that the display requires 6.3 W.  You can see from the calculations above, that 2 USB 2.0 ports will only generate about 5 W.  This means that either the actual average power requirement is much lower than 5W, or there is some power savings scheme on the screen when running on USB.   My hope is that displays would run at even lower power and could run off off a single USB 3.0 port.

Rate this blog below.  Because you love it (or find it mildly useful).

I’ve been getting a lot of requests for our USB 3.0 IP videos lately, so I’ve decided to embed them all into a single webpage here.  These are all the videos of our USB 3.0 PHY, Device, xHCI Host, and Hub we have posted in the past 18 months.

USB 3.0 Device IP & USB 3.0 PHY IP Certified SuperSpeed USB Demo at DesignCon  2010

USB 3.0 PHY IP and USB 3.0 Device IP Demo

Gervais Fong, USB PHY Product Marketing Manager, demonstrates our USB 3.0 PHY IP and USB 3.0 Device IP on HAPS at DesignCon 2010 in April 2010.

DisplayLink USB 3.0 Video Streaming Demo at CES 2010

Dennis Crespo,Executive VP of Business Development and Marketing at DisplayLink, and Gervais Fong, USB PHY PMM, demonstrate 1080p video through the Synopsys USB 3.0 Device IP, a TI PHY, and Synopsys HDMI Tx Digital IP using the Synopsys HAPS FPGA board. CES January 2010

DisplayLink USB 3.0 Streaming Demo with Synospys USB 3.0 PHY IP, USB 3.0 Device IP, and HDMI Tx IP

TI USB 3.0 PHY with Synopsys USB 3.0 IP

TI USB 3.0 PHY, Synopsys USB 3.0 Device IP and USB 3.0 Hub IP demo

Scott Kim from TI demonstrates the TI USB 3.0 PHY * Synopsys USB 3.0 Device IP and Hub IP Controller at IDF Fall 2009.

MCCI USB Software with Synopsys USB IP

MCCI USB 3.0 Media Player MTP software with Synopsys USB 3.0 IP

Terry Moore, CEO of MCCI, demonstrates MCCI’s USB Drivers for Mobile Phones running on our USB 3.0 Device Controller at IDF Fall 2009.

USB 3.0 IP Host, Hub, and Device Demos

Synopsys USB 3.0 Hub IP, USB 3.0 Device IP Demo

Eric Huang, USB 3.0 Digital Cores PMM, demonstrates the Synopsys USB 3.0 Device, xHCI Host, and Hub at IDF F
all 2009. Sept 2009

Synopsys USB 3.0 xHCI Host IP running on Linux, Streaming Video

This is the first public demonstration of the Synopsys USB 3.0 xHCI Host IP Controller at IDF Fall 2009

Scott Kim, TI Business Development, and Eric Huang, USB 3.0 Digital Cores demonstrate the TI PHY and Synopsys USB 3.0 Device Controller in a Mass Storage prototype in April 2009.

Synopsys USB 3.0 Device and Host IP Demonstration streaming data at 450+Megabytes per second

Synopsys’ first demonstration of USB 3.0 device and host prototypes back in Fall 2008.  This demonstrations shows how Synopsys built the IP to support the fastest possible USB 3.0 speeds on thin Linux operating systems.

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