Russell McMahon wrote: > I now firmly believe that I have seen the future and the future is > USB. The days of the PC serial port are numbered (except possible > for longer-distance transmission and then only via USB-serial > bridges) and the PC parallel port is all but dead. Yes, and it isn't just good technology which is driving this trend; Microsoft and Intel are actively directing the industry toward the point where the only external interface to the motherboard will be through a pair of USB ports. > USB 1.1 is now "mature" technology and several manufacturers of > USB devices now have USB 2.0 ready to go. No. Only ONE manufacturer (Cypress Semiconductor) has working USB 2.0 silicon at this point. NEC has a USB 2.0 host controller, but it's still a beta product; high-speed USB2.0-compatible PCs probably won't be available for at least a year. > This uses the same cable and connectors (and is backward compatible > with USB 1.1 devices) but ups the ante to over 420Mbit/s (yes that > is four hundred and twenty). Actually, it's 480 megabits per second. > USB can supply power (up to 500mA from a PC by default and more > from a separately-powered USB expansion hub). .... You could even > just cheat and only use the USB as a source of power for some > otherwise unrelated "gizmo". Your gizmo would still have to enumerate as a USB device; you can't just use the USB port as a 5V power supply. > You can even .... just upload your application code to the SL11R > via the USB .... Windows would then identify your product as being > a ScanLogic SL11R initially, until you uploaded your firmware and > forced the Windows driver to re-enumerate - at which point Windows > would recognise it as your own product and load the appropriate > driver Well, yes, you could do that... But the patent for that re-enumeration process is held by Cypress Semiconductor, so you'd probably want to have a license for it. ScanLogic isn't currently a licensee. > Unfortunately the documentation on the SL11R is rather poor and > leaves a lot of questions which are best answered by trial and > error. Although we a dealing directly with ScanLogic in the US I > strongly suspect much of the thing is of Asian origin and was > developed largely by people for whom English is not their first > language. Perhaps, although Scanlogic claims that they do their design here in the USA. -Andy === Andrew Warren --- aiw@cypress.com === Cypress Semiconductor Corporation === Interface Products Division, S.D. === === The opinions expressed above do === not necessarily represent those of === Cypress Semiconductor Corporation. -- http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList mailto:piclist-unsubscribe-request@mitvma.mit.edu