Cypress expands programmable USB 3.0 controller portfolio

Mark Fu, Senior Director of the USB 3.0 Business Unit at Cypress, comments: “The EZ-USB FX3 USB 3.0 peripheral controller that we introduced in 2011 has fueled SuperSpeed USB proliferation in high-definition video applications including machine vision, document scanning, 3-D gesturing, surveillance imaging, HD video capture, and a variety of industrial cameras. With the addition of CX3, FX3S, and FX3 CSP to the EZ-USB family, Cypress is empowering developers with more SuperSpeed USB solutions to accelerate their designs as the market transitions from USB 2.0 to USB 3.0.”

Enabling new SuperSpeed USB applications:

EZ-USB CX3 is a USB 3.0 programmable camera controller that enables developers to add USB 3.0 connectivity to any image sensors supporting the Mobile Industry Processor Interface Camera Serial Interface Type 2 standard. CX3 supports MIPI CSI-2 version 1.01, up to 4 data lanes at speed up to 1 Gbps per lane, for a total bandwidth of 4 Gbps. CX3 is ideally suited for high-definition, high-speed image-capturing applications and is capable of streaming uncompressed video at 1080p at 30 fps or 720p 60 fps. CX3 supports many image formats including RAW8/10/12/14, YUV422 (CCIR/ITU 8/10-bit), and RGB888/666/565. Based on the proven FX3 Platform, CX3 comes with an ARM9 CPU and 512 KB SRAM, providing 200 MIPS of computational power for on-chip image data processing. CX3 supports multiple peripheral interfaces such as I2C, SPI, and UART, which can be programmed to support Pan, Tilt and Zoom or other camera control functions.

EZ-USB FX3S is a USB 3.0 storage controller that supports dual Secure Digital or embedded MultiMedia Card interfaces. Based on Cypress’s proprietary West Bridge architecture, FX3S enables simultaneous links among storage media, application processor and USB 3.0, allowing unrestricted three-way data flow for maximizing data transfer rate. FX3S’s on-chip support for Redundant Array of Independent Disks offers RAID0 or RAID1 configurations and can be programmed to support vendor-specific commends via Mass Storage Class drivers that are standard in nearly all operating systems.  Equipped with a 16-bit configurable General Programmable Interface, FX3S is capable of interfacing with virtually any application processor and can be programmed as a boot disk for the processor. Measuring 10 mm x 10 mm in footprint, FX3S enables the industry’s smallest RAID-on-Chip solution, and is ideally suited for server virtualization and embedded storage applications.

EZ-USB FX3 CSP is the industry-leading FX3 USB 3.0 peripheral controller in a Wafer-Level Chip Scale Package. Measuring only 4.7 mm x 5.1 mm, FX3 CSP offers more than a 75% footprint reduction from the FX3 controller in a Ball-Grid-Array package (10 mm x 10 mm). FX3 CSP is a compelling solution for industrial and consumer camera designs that demand the smallest footprint for aggressive module miniaturization. The FX3 solution is the industry’s first and only programmable USB 3.0 peripheral controller. Equipped with a 32-bit configurable GPIF II interface, FX3 is capable of interfacing with virtually any processor, FPGA, ASIC, or image sensor that requires USB 3.0 device functionality. The programmable 256-state GPIF II is capable of providing 400 MB/s bandwidth to meet the data throughput requirements of the most demanding USB 3.0 applications. The on-chip ARM9 CPU core with 512 KB RAM delivers 200 MIPS of computational power for applications that require local data processing.

The EZ-USB FX3 controller comes with a highly configurable development kit and companion software tool, the GPIF II Designer, to jumpstart any USB 3.0 project. The FX3 DVK contains all necessary hardware, software development kit and documentation that a developer needs to start hardware and software integration. Using the DVK, designers can fully explore FX3’s 32 configurable USB end-points, rich APIs, and other built-in interfaces – such as GPIOs, SPI, I2C, and I2S – for system level monitoring and control. The intuitive GPIF II Designer with Graphic User Interface guides developers in simple, logical steps to configure FX3’s GPIF II in 32-bit, 16-bit, or 8-bit configurations to meet unique system requirements. Once configured, GPIF II provides simple and glue-less connectivity to commonly used system interfaces such as slave FIFO, SRAM, ADMUX, or any vendor-defined interfaces. The flexibility and programmability of FX3 makes it an ideal solution to add USB 3.0 connectivity to virtually system.

Product availability

The CX3 controller is now available for customer sampling. The FX3S and FX3 CSP controllers are in full production. All three products have been certified by USB-IF to receive the USB 3.0 logo.