The new eSPI Analysis Application and the eSPI Active Example Files are the latest addition to the Promira Serial Platform application library – increasing the functionality of the device to include eSPI debugging at 66MHz.

Total Phase is pleased to announce the release of the eSPI Analysis Application and eSPI Active Example Files for the Promira Serial Platform. The Promira platform is the next generation of embedded tools, combining a host adapter and a protocol analyzer into a single serial platform. The introduction of protocol analysis and support for the eSPI protocol increase the capabilities of the Promira platform making it stronger, faster and smarter than any other single device on the market.

USB Type-C is the new universal USB connector that replaces the entire plethora of medium, small, and large connectors that are used in your cell phones and your PCs with one small, easy-to-use connector. It's been adopted very rapidly because it combines ease of use with a much higher degree of flexibility.

In the 2015 EMF Survey of Embedded Developers (1,334 responses), 16.5 percent of USB developments were using the USB-C connector. Keep in mind that it’s only been available for a year. This is a huge early response to the USB-C connector.

One of the important features of USB Type-C is the alternate mode capability, which permits the use of other high-speed serial technologies the same connector. For example, you can combine USB with DisplayPort, Thunderbolt, or MHL (which is an HDMI like system). This gives the developer/system designer the ability to use one port (and one hole in the plastic) to bring out all the high-speed interconnects.

As the industry transitions to Type-C connectors, an increase in product designers' creativity will result because they can now use one port to connect with various different products. This also gives designers the ability to use standard off the shelf components for things like power supplies. This, in turn, will drive the economies of scale. It’s going to make products cheaper and more flexible consumers.

So as companies plan to incorporate and adopt USB Type-C, it’s important to be aware of how substantially this will impact the USB ecosystem. Developers will be able to connect their products to many other products. It’s becoming an even much bigger ecosystem than we had for plain USB. This means most companies will need to work with partners, both on the hardware side (the IP blocks, for example with Cadence) and on the software side (with a system software company like MCCI) because developers will want to focus on what makes their products unique, and what gives them a competitive edge.

If a company tries to go it alone, it'll burn a team of talented engineers for some time period, dealing with the complexity of the specs and with the complexities of interoperability. If companies go with an IP provider (or a team of IP providers), that aspect is taken care of for them. Such partnerships will stand behind the engineering team, allowing them to focus on what makes these products great. CFOs should be wary of incurring internal engineering resource expenses when partnering with other experienced USB vendors can provide cost savings and reduced time to market.

This is the first of four video tutorials that we will be publishing here about the new open source SmartScope from LabNation. The SmartScope is the only scope in the world that runs on all major platforms such as Windows, OSX, Linux, Android and iOS (jailbroken).

Introduction

Monitoring USB Type C Laptop and USB Type C Flash Drive is a common use case for the USB Power Delivery Analyzer. This article focuses on how to monitor USB Power Delivery system with USB Power Delivery Analyzer, Sigrok and PulseView. Although the following describes the USB Power Delivery between SanDisk USB Type C Flash Drive and Google Chromebook Pixel (2015) with USB Type C receptacles, similar steps can be used for other devices. The goal of this article is to demonstrate how to monitor USB Power Delivery with Power Delivery Analyzer and Sigrok and then to view it with PulseView on Ubuntu Linux 14.04 LTS 64-bit laptop.

Were you among the crowd of attendees at Colin O’Flynn’s presentation “USSSSB: Talking USB from Python" at ESC Silicon Valley? Jacob Beningo, CSDP, president/consultant for EDN Network, attended O’Flynn’s presentation and agrees, the Total Phase Beagle USB Protocol Analyzer is among the Most Useful Tools for USB Developers. Here's the excerpt from Jacob’s most recent article about the tools he finds most useful for USB debugging and development:

Questions: I am sending 5 bytes of SPI data using the Cheetah SPI Host Adapter, and Cheetah Python API. It takes about 210 ms to send this data, how do I reduce the programming time?

Watch this short demonstration on how to use the Komodo CAN Duo Interface and the Data Center Software to monitor and analyze CAN data in real time.