connectivityZONE Products for the week of January
23, 2006
Agere Systems Says…
Agere's Embedded Controller Delivers USB 2.0 Connectivity
Plus ARM-7 CPU Power At 8051 Pricing
Chip boosts performance of cameras, MP3 players, scanners,
and other high speed USB devices
Agere Systems has introduced a USB 2.0 system-on-a-chip with
an on-board microprocessor that processes data more than three times faster
than widely deployed 8051-based USB 2.0 device controllers.
Called the USS2828, the chip integrates an ARM7TDMS microprocessor and
processes 40 million instructions per second (MIPS). The nearest competing
chip based on the 8051 microprocessor processes data at 12 MIPS. The higher
processing speed means more applications can be added via software.
Such applications include adding marketable capabilities to various USB
2.0 PC-based applications such as cameras, MP3 players, and scanners. One
example could be boosting the speed at which a scanner performs image processing.
Agere's new chip integrates 10 technologies including the ARM7TDMS core.
Integrating the ARM7TDMS in the USS2828 offers more MIPS at a similar price
point as 8051-based solutions.
In addition to the integrated microcontroller, other key functions of
the new chip include a USB 2.0 high-speed PHY and device controller; a direct
memory access controller; a memory controller; a programmable interrupt
controller; read-only memory; random access memory; general purpose input-output
technology; and two timers. The US2828 offers developers two options for
interfacing the device with the end application. There is a 16 bit external
memory interface and 24 programmable I/Os.
"Consumers want cameras, MP3 players and scanners with a more muscular
engine so they can economically add differentiating, revenue-generating
features to their products," said Surinder Rai, marketing director
of the Enterprise and Networking Division of Agere Systems. "This chip,
because of its wealth of spare horsepower and high level of integration,
provides that valuable benefit to them."
The chip supports both high-speed USB 2.0 (480 Megabits per second) and
full-speed (12 Mbits/s) data transfers.
analogZONE Says . . .
Agere's entry into the microcontroller market is
not as strange as it first appears. Although taking on the likes of Intel,
TI, and Microchip in the embedded arena would at first seem like a suicidal
move, the wizards of Allentown seem to have found an underserved market
which could benefit from this nicely-repurposed IP they originally acquired
to drive their USB modem chips.
The ample processing power (40
MIPS) afforded by its ARM-7 core should give developers the processing power
they need to add features and functions to lots of lower-end embedded applications
that are out of reach of the 8051-based MCUs which currently dominate this
market. The device's integrated USB 2.0 MAC/PHY (see Fig. 1) will provide all the bandwidth
required to handle the larger files that are so common in today's cameras,
MP-3 players and other multimedia devices. Its ample 2 kbyte RAM and 4 kbyte
ROM should be more than enough for most embedded applications, but Agere
has also provided a clean, easy-to-use memory controller and expansion bus
in case you need it.
Drawing about 0.33 W while running at 80 MHz in
its bus-powered mode, the device's power consumption is very good, considering
the computing power and fast USB interface it packs. This, and a sub-$3
price that's just around what a high-end (10-12 MIPS) 8051 and a companion
USB controller chip would cost, could give Agere's integrated controller/MAC/PHY
the price/value ratio it will need to garner sockets in scanners, cameras,
and other peripherals which need to connect with printers or storage systems.
But despite all the positives, I think that Agere
will face a few challenges in displacing 8051-based products. The most significant
will be overcoming customer inertia generated by the huge base of code and
experience built up by companies currently using the near-ubiquitous processor.
Personally, the 8051's Harvard architecture and quirky instruction set makes
it one of my least-favorite processors to program, but it's hard to convince
a programmer or project manger to invest in new development tools and climb
a steep learning curve to support a new processor unless its manufacturer
makes it as easy as possible, and provides some compelling reasons to do
so.
Agere' choice of Metaware's firmware development
environment (including their High C/C++ complier, "SeeCode" Debugger,
and low cost Raven JTAG Debugger) should help them gain some traction among
the many C-oriented developers out there. With so much programming being
done in high-level languages like C/C++, this should allow developers to
easily port over the bulk of their code to the new platform although any
time-critical hand-written code segments will have to be rewritten. Agere
is working hard to make the transition to an ARM platform as easy as possible
with a hardware evaluation kit that includes sample USB drivers and a host/PC
side Resource Development Kit, and software developed on Microsoft Visual
C++ 6.0. Developers will also welcome the PC application code that will
be available to selected customers to help them build their own test and
evaluation software. In the future Agere plans to port the firmware to the
ARM ADS Tools and JTAGJet Debugger.
The other issue that Agere will face is selling
their products to the embedded community, a market/culture that they only
have limited experience with. While I have not done embedded development
for many years, I'd speculate that most designers doing work in this area
rely on a rich ecosystem of support coming from the manufacturer, third-party
vendors, and the rest of the developer community itself. Successful players
in this market like Freescale, Intel and TI seem to go to great lengths
to coordinate these resources, make them easily accessible to their customers
and even run seminars and conferences for their developer communities. While
I'd not expect Agere to go to these lengths for a relatively small family
of products, I'm hoping they will work closely with MIPS and other parts
of the MIPS community to create a critical mass of resources that will help
attract developers to this useful, and well-priced, USB-enabled microcontroller.
The USS2828 is in production in a 48 pin package,
priced under $3 in 1000-piece lots.
Data
Sheet
analogZONE
(c) 2006. All rights reserved.
The ample processing power (40
MIPS) afforded by its ARM-7 core should give developers the processing power
they need to add features and functions to lots of lower-end embedded applications
that are out of reach of the 8051-based MCUs which currently dominate this
market. The device's integrated USB 2.0 MAC/PHY (see Fig. 1) will provide all the bandwidth
required to handle the larger files that are so common in today's cameras,
MP-3 players and other multimedia devices. Its ample 2 kbyte RAM and 4 kbyte
ROM should be more than enough for most embedded applications, but Agere
has also provided a clean, easy-to-use memory controller and expansion bus
in case you need it.