Breakout boards support serial & parallel interfaces

18th November 2015

FTDI (Future Technology Devices International Limited)

Nat Bowers

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FTDI Chip has added to the support it can offer to engineers using its highly regarded X-Chip series by introducing an array of breakout boards. Through these compact, low-profile items, the bridging of USB 2.0 (full speed) signals to serial or parallel interfaces is facilitated.

The UMFT200XD is a USB-to-I²C module with four control bus lines, which is based on the FT200XD device. The UMFT201XB incorporates an FT201XQ IC and is also designed for USB-to-I2C conversion. This is complemented by the UMFT220XB, featuring an FT220XQ, which enables conversion of USB to a user-chosen, parallel bit interface (FTDI Chip’s own proprietary FT1248 I/O) where the data bus may be set to a bit width of 1, 2, 4 or 8 depending on design constraints.

The UMFT230XB modules relies on an FT230XQ USB-to-UART IC. It has four control bus lines and can be utilised for UART bridging with a UART rate of 3Mb/s available. These modules are powered via USB, with no additional power source required. They do not have a built-in USB connector as the mechanical dimensions of the PCB allow direct insertion into the USB Host connector.

In addition to the standard -01 products, the new X-Chip breakout boards will also be offered in two other versions. The -NC variant is supplied without the connector on the I/O side, while the -WE variant comes with 15cm ‘flying leads’ attached. Each of these X-Chip breakout boards is suitable for use with a broad range of different operating systems. These include Windows CE.NET/Vista/7/8/XP/XP Embedded, as well as Android, Linux 3.0 (and above) and MAC OS-X.

Unit pricing on these breakout boards begins at $9.50.