Kingston, Sandisk, Viewsonic, Canon, Toshiba

On Sale at DiscoveryStore.com



Find the right memory at MemorySuppliers.com!

Once You Know, You Newegg

MediaFACE labeling software at Neato.com

GDA Technologies Ships Configurable USB 3.0 Controller

  • Author: USBWorld
  • Filed under: USB News
  • Date: Nov 24,2008

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Innovative USB 3.0 technology enables higher performance, is adaptable across numerous functions

SuperSpeed USB Developers Conference — GDA Technologies, Inc., a leader in high-speed serial connects, announced plans today to ship “Pravega” - its USB 3.0 family of cores consisting of a highly configurable SuperSpeed device and host controllers that are interoperable with third-party USB 3.0 PHY’s running at 5 Gbits/s maximum speeds.

The first product in the Pravega family to be made available to customers will be a Device Controller Core. It can be configured to support any allowed number of Bulk, Isochronous, and Interrupt endpoints. Control endpoints can be supported natively by the core or optionally by an external processor.

The Pravega Device Controller core is architected with a high-performance DMA engine and application interface for maximizing performance of streaming data and can be easily adapted to support host functionality. Optionally, the core can also be configured to operate with a customer’s existing DMA Engine.

“Our highly configurable USB 3.0 controller cores are architected for easy integration across a variety of applications that are enabled by Superspeed USB specifications,” noted Ravi Thummarukudy, VP and General Manager of IC and IP division at GDA, in a statement. “Applications with video downloads can see download times decrease from about an hour down to 20 seconds with USB 3.0. While providing these SuperSpeed capabilities, of course, we will maintain compatibility with the existing USB 2.0,” Thummarukudy added.

The Pravega Device Controller core supports all defined USB 3.0 power states, with the design carefully partitioned to support standard power management schemes. Optionally, it can be configured to manage power mode transitions of the controller and USB 3.0 PHY the enable the aggressive power savings required for mobile and handheld devices.

The controller itself features a very simple application interface that can be easily adapted to standard on-chip-bus interfaces such as AXI, AHB, and OCP as well as other standard off-chip interconnects.

The controller’s simple, configurable, and layered architecture is independent of application logic, PHY designs, implementation tools and, most importantly, the target technology. The GDA solution allows licensees to easily migrate among FPGA, Gate array, and Standard cell technologies (ASICs) optimally. Its flexible backend interface makes it especially easy to integrate the solution into a wide range of consumer applications.

GDA Technologies:

GDA Technologies is a leading Electronic Design Services (EDS) and Silicon Intellectual Property (SIP) solution provider for the Embedded, Networking, and Consumer Electronics Market. GDA is part of the L&T Infotech Product Engineering Services (PES) offerings that aims to provide end-to-end product design capability to its customers. GDA is headquartered in San Jose, CA with satellite design centers in Boston, Sacramento, Chennai, Kochi, and Bangalore.

GDA has developed many high-performance IP cores for computer and networking interfaces, including Hyper Transport, 10 Gigabit Ethernet MAC, and SPI4.2. Additionally, GDA designs systems, boards, SoC’s, ASIC’s, and FPGA’s from concept to product levels. The company has successfully developed IPs and products in the areas of high-speed handheld embedded solutions, digital video applications, Internet appliances, voice and data networking applications, and non-form factor PC architectures. For more information, please visit http://www.gdatech.com/IP/silicon_ip.shtml

GDA is a reseller and integrator of Rambus digital core intellectual property (IP) products which include a complete line of controller cores for PCI Express, Ethernet, SPI4.2 and RapidIO implementations.


PLDA, the industry leader in high-speed interconnect IP, announced the immediate availability of a new line of SuperSpeed USB IP products designed for ASIC and FPGA. SuperSpeed USB or USB 3.0 increases the speed of USB to 5 GHz, reducing system latency and increasing performance. This announcement significantly expands PLDA’s presence in the interconnect IP market and extends its existing leadership in the PCI space to this new standard.

Additionally, PLDA announced that they would be showcasing and demonstrating their USB 3.0 products at the SuperSpeed USB Developer’s Conference, held Nov 17 – 18, 2008 in San Jose, CA. The demo highlights the performance of the PLDA solution and showcases real-world data transfers between a SuperSpeed USB host and a device at 5 GHz.

The PLDA suite of USB 3.0 products provide a range of advanced features including:

  • Compliance with the USB 3.0 Specification, revision 1.0 and backwards-compatibility to USB 2.0
  • Extensive IP Configurability
  • Wide selection of user interfaces
  • Ability to prototype in FPGA and migrate seamlessly to ASIC

Key components of the PLDA USB 3.0 Suite of products include:

  • USB 3.0 Host IP
  • USB 3.0 Device IP
  • USB 3.0 Development Kit, available with latest generation FPGA from Altera and Xilinx
  • Reference designs
  • Complete documentation for all components and comprehensive technical support provided by PLDA’s IP designers

“There are a number of design synergies between PCI Express and SuperSpeed USB” said Stephane Hauradou, PLDA’s CTO. “As a recognized leader and expert in high-speed serial link interface IP, we provide the most comprehensive and most flexible IP solution for SuperSpeed USB implementation. We work closely with major PHY IP vendors and foundries to extend our USB 3.0 offering to any available process node; we also team up with leading Verification IP providers to not rely solely on our own verification methodology and ensure a robust verification of our IP.”

See PLDA’s USB 3.0 Products in action at the SuperSpeed USB Developers Conference:
During the SuperSpeed USB Developers Conference on November 17 – 18, 2008 in San Jose, CA, PLDA will be demonstrating their USB 3.0 solutions. The demo features two PLDA USB 3.0 ASIC development platforms connected to each other via a USB 3.0 compliant 5.0 GHz link. The host board incorporates PLDA’s USB 3.0 Host IP and traffic generator engine. Traffic is received by the device board using PLDA’s USB 3.0 Device IP and data throughput is displayed in real-time via the PLDA demo software’s graphical user interface.For more information on the SuperSpeed USB Developers Conference, please visit the conference website at http://www.usb.org/developers/events/ssusb_devcon/.

Product Availability:
The PLDA SuperSpeed USB Host IP, Device IP, Development Kit and Reference Designs are ready to ship and available now from PLDA. Please email PLDA at sales@plda.com for further information or visit us online at www.plda.com.