Adding fast USB 2.0 to new or existing products or equipment

USB 1.1 is useful for basic communications but for really fast data transfer you need USB 2.0. QuickUSB® modules make it easy to add USB 2.0 to your product with no hassle. They have High Speed Parallel, Serial, SPI and General I/O Ports instantly available in hardware and software over USB 2.0.
For more information on QuickUSB Modules

USB 2.0 now allows large quantities of data to be shifted very fast, but trying to understand howto achieve high transfer rates is a long drawn out struggle even if you have an understanding of the basic USB protocol. What is required is an easy to implement solution that lets you concentrate on the rest of the circuit and just add a unit that takes care of the fast USB 2.0 communications.

QuickUSB gives you exactly that - a simple plug in module with lots of different interface options. The available interfaces on QUSB2 modules include:

• 8 or 16-bit High Speed Parallel Ports for really fast data transfer, from DSPs or FPGA based circuits for example. Typical applications for these interfaces can include medical instrumentation, logic analyzers or data acquisition amongst many others.
• Dual RS232 Serial Ports with programmable Baud Rates that can be interrupt driven.
• Synchronous serial port (SPI) with Slave Select to allow multiple devices on the SPI Bus.
• Three 8-bit general I/O ports, depending on which other interfaces are used, with easy software access to set each pin as input or output individually.

The QUSB2 interfaces give you the ability to convert existing products to USB 2.0 or create new applications from scratch. The software supplied with the modules removes any need to understand how USB 2.0 works, whilst making it simple to access the different interfaces from the PC. The modules use a complete implementation of USB 2.0 that uses its full speed data transfer unlike other devices that are "compatible" with USB 2.0 but don’t give full-speed data transfer.

The software libraries include the USB 2.0 drivers for most operating systems, an application DLL and examples of using the software in most commonly used programming languages, including Visual Basic, C++ and Delphi. The DLL has functions that read and write individual bytes or data blocks from each type of interface and supports all the details required to provide flexibility e.g. LSB or MSB first on SPI port, input or output on each I/O pin or Baud rate and flow control on the Serial ports.The QuickUSB solution is available as a plug-in module for fast development and ease of use – QUSB2. Alternatively, the firmware to implement the USB solutions is available in a QuickUSB chip pack using a 24C EEPROM to add to your own circuit design. All the PC software needed for seamless integration into existing software is supplied for both the module and the chip packs.

The QuickUSB solution is designed and built by Bitwise Systems and is now available in Europe from Kanda.com. These modules and chip packs are being used in a wide range of applications in observatories, research labs and commercial operations.

For more information on QuickUSB click here.