Unprecedented Soft Architecture, RAM Architecture

Unprecedented “Soft” Architecture

Soft Configuration

The focus of the EZ-USB family is to provide the peripheral designer a multitude of design configurations and migration paths. The “soft,” programmable nature of the EZ-USB architecture provides flexibility while

Host PC

Code

Download

Anchor Chips

USB Controller

		Now it’s easy.
			Hardware configuration
	¤

			Software upgrades
RAM		¤

			Memory enhancements
		¤

¤Feature upgrades

minimizing risks.

USB requires synchronization between four major technology suppliers: operating system, UHCI/OHCI interfaces, hub controllers, and peripheral devices. In a traditional hard- ware configuration, ensuring that a peripheral device will work with every combination of these technologies is a time- consuming and expensive task.

Using the EZ-USB chip’s “soft” configuration, the peripheral developer can easily devise workarounds or accommodate dynamic changes. At the same time, there is minimum risk to design implementation.

Peripheral manufacturers can provide firmware updates in conjunction with driver changes via a floppy disk or through Internet downloads. Thus,

software device configurability provides easy field updates, last minute software code changes prior to production, or alterations due to ever-changing standards. In these ways, the EZ-USB chip makes development easier and guards against product obsoles- cence.

RAM Architecture

With an enhanced 8051 core combined with 4 or 8 Kbytes of SRAM in a single chip, users have a complete solution. The 8051’s firmware can be stored in the hard disk (along with the driver) and downloaded into the peripheral during its initialization. That makes updates as easy as updating any other PC software.

EZ-USB Series 2100