USB Frequently Asked Questions
| General USB FAQs |
Q: What is USB?
A: USB is a peripheral bus specification developed by PC and telecom industry leaders -- Compaq, DEC, IBM, Intel,
Microsoft, NEC, and Northern Telecom -- that brings plug and play of computer peripherals outside the box, eliminating
the need to install cards into dedicated computer slots and reconfigure the system. Personal computers equipped
with USB allow computer peripherals to be automatically configured as soon as they are physically attached - without
the need to reboot or run setup. USB also allows multiple devices -- up to 127 -- to run simultaneously on a computer,
with peripherals such as monitors and keyboards acting as additional plug-in sites, or hubs.
Q: Who created USB?
A: USB was developed by a group of seven companies that saw a need for an interconnect to enable the growth of
the blossoming Computer Telephony Integration Industry. The seven promoters of the USB definition are: Compaq,
Digital Equipment Corp, IBM PC Co., Intel, Microsoft, NEC and Northern Telecom.
Q: What kind of peripherals will USB allow me to hook up to my PC?
A: You name it:
telephones, modems, keyboards, mice, 4x and 6x
CD ROM drives, joysticks, tape and floppy
drives, scanners and printers. USB's 12
megabit/s data rate also accommodates a whole
new generation of peripherals, including MPEG-2
video-based products, data gloves and
digitizers. Also, since computer-telephony
integration is expected to be a big growth area
for PCs, USB can provide an interface for
Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) and
digital PBXs.
Q: What do USB plugs and ports look like?
A: USB features one "Universal" plug type for all USB peripheral-to-PC connections. The distinctive USB
plug looks like this:
USB ports found on PCs and on some USB peripherals including keyboards and monitors looks like this:
Q: Will I need special software to run USB?
A: No separate software should be needed. USB driver support is built-in to the latest versions of the Windows
operating system. You will need a current version of Windows. Most PCs shipping in 1998 feature such an operating
system. You can tell if you have the USB-compliant version of Windows installed by using a free USB evaluation
utility you can download directly from the USB Implementors Forum Website. If you are more technically
inclined you can right-click on the "My
Computer" icon on the Windows 95 desktop.
Then choose "Properties." USB requires
version 4.00950B or later.
Q: Is USB available on mobile computers in addition to desktops?
A: USB is currently available as a key feature on many notebook computers from leading manufacturers, including
Hitachi, NEC, Panasonic, Sony and Toshiba. One great advantage of USB is that it allows notebook users to flexibly
share peripheral devices.
Q: What kinds of USB peripherals can I connect to my PC?
A: USB carries data at the rate of 12 megabits per second, which is sufficient for "medium to low-speed peripherals."
This broad category includes telephones, digital cameras, modems, keyboards, mice, digital joysticks, some CD-ROM
drives, tape and floppy drives, digital scanners and specialty printers. USB's data rate also accommodates a whole
new generation of peripherals, including MPEG-2 video-based products, data gloves and digitizers. Computer-telephony
integration is expected to be a big growth area for PCs, and USB can provide an interface for Integrated Services
Digital Network (ISDN) and digital PBXs.
Q: Will traditional PC serial and parallel ports disappear?
A: While USB will not replace traditional PC ports overnight, it is expected to rapidly become the preferred means
of connecting I/O devices (like digital joysticks, for example) as well as "medium-speed" peripherals
such as phones, scanners and digital cameras. Higher-speed peripherals, such as mass storage devices, will require
connectivity with higher data rates than USB currently provides. PCs will feature USB ports together with these
higher-speed connections.
Q: Does USB affect the cost of PCs and peripheral devices?
A: USB is a built-in feature of most modern PC chip sets, as well as operating system and other system software.
It does not significantly affect PC prices.By eliminating add-in cards and separate power supplies, USB can help
make PC peripheral devices more affordable than they otherwise would be. In addition, USB's "hot-swapping"
capability allows business users to easily attach and detach peripherals. Device sharing can reduce the cost of
ownership of such equipment.
Q: How many USB peripherals can I connect at once?
A: Technically, you can
connect up to 127 individual USB peripherals at
one time. It's interesting to note that just one
USB plug must be connected to the USB port on
the PC. Other connections may be made on the
desktop, using USB ports on hub peripherals.
Q: How many USB products are being developed?
A: More than 250 individual USB products
are being developed by the industry's leading
manufacturers.
Q: What does USB mean to Host and Peripheral Vendors?
A: The compatibility of USB is built on the foundation of a technically solid and open specification that meets
customer needs for affordable, easily expandable PCs. USB compatibility in turn may enable both suppliers and resellers
of PCs, peripherals and software to profit from powerful new marketing methods:- "Platform packaging" allows logically related hardware and software products to be marketed together.
- USB can reduce the incompatibility risk associated with bundling PCs, peripherals and software to create specialized
turnkey systems that meet the needs of specialized market niches.
- USB-compliant peripherals may result in offering corporate purchasers and home users more purchasing choices,
without fear of system degradation.
- Resellers may have more flexibility to mix and match selected products and systems in order to stage seasonal
promotions and to offer purchase incentives.
- USB may enable more peripheral suppliers to benefit from the momentum established by PCs based on MMX™ technology.
- USB may help suppliers
to reduce their development costs which will
allow them to establish highly competitive new
price points.
Q: Where can I get a current copy of the USB specification?
A: The current spec is available for download from the USB Implementers
Forum home page.
Q: Are there USB products out right now?
A: Yes. PCs with USB capability started shipping in mid-1996, and the first wave of USB peripherals are on the store shelves today.
Products used to
design and build USB systems, such as
connectors, chipsets and board-level computers
are also available.
Q: Where can I learn more technical details about USB.
A: Technical presentations and other details are available from the USB
Implementers Forum
web site at www.usb.org/developers, as well as
directly from USB-IF member companies.
Q: What is the USB-IF?
A: The USB
Implementers Forum is a support organization
formed by the seven promoters of USB to help
speed development of high quality compatible
devices using USB.
Q: What are the benefits of USB-IF?
A: Please refer to the USB Implementers Forum website for more
information.
Q: How do I join USB-IF?
A: A membership application can be downloaded from the USB Implementers
Forum
website .
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| USB Starter Kit FAQs |
Q: What does the USB Starter Kit "CY3640-110V/220V" contain?
A: The
Cypress Starter Kit contains:
- Three CY7C63001 Cypress USB Controller devices: One pre-programmed windowed controller on the CY3640 USB Thermometer
Demo board, and two spare devices (one windowed and one OTP)
- One Cypress USB Programmer from HI-LO Systems with a wall power adapter, a serial cable and programming software
on a floppy disk
- One CY3640 USB Starter Kit printed circuit board
- One low-speed unshielded USB "A to B" Cable
- One Cypress USB Starter Kit CD-ROM:
- Software:
- CYASM: Cypress USB controller assembler
- USB Thermometer device assembly source code
- USB Thermometer Windows application program executable code
- USB Thermometer device
driver
- Documentation:
- Cypress USB controller family datasheets
- USB Thermometer User's Guide and Application Note: Designing a USB Thermometer with the CY7C63001 USB Controller
- USB Thermometer PC board layout and schematics
- USB Specification v1.0
- Cypress CYASM assembler manual
- Cypress USB-related application notes
- Cypress
databook
- Printed documentation:
- USB Starter Kit User's Guide
- USB Starter Kit Application Note
- Registration card -
Please fill it out and drop it in the
mail
Q: What OS will the Starter Kit work with?
A:OSR 2.1 (Windows 95B + USB supplement)
Windows 98
Q: What is the correct sequence for installing the Starter Kit on OSR 2.1?
A: The order in which components were installed is very important. The correct order for OSR2.1 is:
1.Install USB supplement
2.Plug in thermometer
3.Install device driver
4.Install and run thermometer application.
If your system seems to be in an inconsistent state, uninstall the USB supplement and the thermometer application
(use Add/Remove Program from the Control Panel). Now, reinstall just the supplement. At this point you shouldhave
2 subentries under the Device Manager's USB Controller heading:
-Host Controller
-Root Hub
If you don't find these two entries your system has not detect your PC's USB hardware. Try rebooting your PC pressing
the refresh button in the device manager.
Plug in the thermometer. The following things should occur in the order specified:
1. The red LED turns on.
2. The mouse pointer should turn into an hourglass and the Add New Hardware Wizard appears on the screen prompting
you to look for a device driver. Load the device driver (from CD).
3. The green LED turns on after the driver is loaded.
4. There is a Thermometer entry in the Device Manager.
5. Now run Setup from the CD to install the thermometer application. The thermometer application should be able
to talk to the thermometer (there should be no "Error communicating with device" message), and the application
should report the current temperature. The Dallas Semiconductor temperature sensing device does not need to be
programmed, or anything like that.
If 1 and 2 don't occur, then there still appears to be a problem with your system. You might want to consider signing
up as a Win98 beta user with Microsoft and use Win98 as your USB host operating system instead of OSR2.1. Otherwise,
if you can get access to another PC with OSR2.1 installed, you could try out the thermometer with that. You have
to understand that step 2 is an indication that your system recognizes that a new device was plugged in, even before
knowing which device it is. If this step doesn't occur, then no USB device will work with that system. It's best
to work with your system vendor at that point to get the problem resolved.
If 1
and 2 do occur, but you have problems with steps
3 - 5, then it would be a software/hardware
issue with the thermometer. In this case try to
reinstall the driver from CD. Remember, this new
driver installation won't help you if you can't
get to step 2.
Q: What are the instructions to install the New Driver: (Works with Windows 98 only)
A: If you already have the old USB thermometer driver installed in your system:
1.Unzip USBTherm.zip
2.Copy USBTherm.sys to C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM. This will copy over the old thermometer driver.
3.Reboot the system. NOTE: because of its bug, unloading the old thermometer driver during the reboot process will
crash the system. Continue with the reboot procedure. After the system is rebooted, the new thermometer driver
will be properly loaded.
If you are installing the new thermometer driver in a new system:
1.Unzip USBTherm.zip
2.Copy both unzipped files USBTherm.sys and CypressSemiconductorCYPRESS.INF to a floppy disk
3.Insert the floppy disk into your floppy drive
4.Plug the thermometer PC board into your PC's USB port. Windows will detect it as a new device and load the thermometer
driver from the floppy.
Q: Where can I obtain the source code for the Thermometer application or device driver?
A: We do not distribute or support the Thermometer Application or Driver source code. If you want learn about developing
USB application and driver you can get information from MSDN (Micrsoft Developer Net at www.microsoft.com/msdn/
)
and read the following book: Developing USB PC Peripheral written by Wooi Ming Tan.
Q: Where can I obtain the USB supplement for Windows 95?
A: Contact Microsoft or visit the MSDN Website : www.microsoft.com/msdn/
Q: Where can I obtain Windows 98?
A: Contact Microsoft or visit the MSDN Website : www.microsoft.com/msdn/
| | USB Development Kit FAQs |
Q: How can I use Cypress's USB development tools provide advantages for our USB product development effort?
A: Cypress's USB development tools program is a key link in Cypress's complete solutions and support for our customers
and gets developers off to a running start with their USB designs. The development tools program consists of a
comprehensive set of hardware and software products and services, including:
Reference designs and technical support services that complement Cypress USB microcontroller products; hardware
evaluation boards and software development tools that support USB evaluation and prototyping; USB emulators that
support hardcore debugging.
See the Developer's Tools webpage.
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| USB Programming FAQs | |
Q: How can I get technical support from Data I/O concerning the Impulse3 or Data I/O
programmers?
A. Go to the Data I/O technical support Web page.
Q: What third party programmers suppport Cypress USB devices?
A. Go to the USB Programming Support page for a list of
third party programming vendors.
Cypress Semiconductor provides a complete solution for USB development and programming with its Development Kits
and Impulse3 device programmer. Additionally, a wide array of third-party programmer vendors also provide support
for Cypress devices. These third-party programmers are available directly from the third-party programmer vendor.
Please contact the vendor directly for the most up-to-date information on specific features and device support.
Q: How do I get the latest version of the Impulse3 software?
A. To get the latest Impulse3 software, download it from Cypress's USB Programming
Support web page. Place this file in a temporary directory, and expand it. You will find
a file called "readme.1st" that explains what you need to do to install the software.
Q: Where can I find an inexpensive device programming solution for Cypress devices?
A. Cypress has a product called Impulse3 which is an OEM version of Data I/O's Chiplab. For more information, download
the Impulse3 datasheet . The USB Starter Kit also contains a manual Hi-Lo programmer which will allow you to program
630xx/631xx devices.
Q: Hardware problem 0802: device operation initialization failed.
A. There are several things that could cause the error and several fixes that may be tried:
1. Reduce the data transfer speed. The data transfer speed option is accessable through the hardware option in
the preferences pull-down menu.
2. Check that you are using the correct adapter to program the part.
3. Check that you have selected the correct part and package.
4. An older version of the IMPULSE3 software may be in use. Check that you are using the latest release of the
Impulse3 software.
5. The PPI contacts are worn or not making a good connection.
Q: I can not run Microsoft Office applications after I install the Impulse3 software.
A. It is very important that you close all
running applications including the MS Office
tool bar before installing the Impulse3
software. The Impulse3 software does not update
the dynamic link library (dll). Without an
updated dll, some of your applications will not
run properly. Follow the steps below to update
your dll
files.
1. Find the set of dll files associated with the MS Office
Application. The dll files are usually located in c:\windows\system
directory.
2. Rename the dll files to [filename].old. For example,
rename example.dll to example.old.
3. Replace the old dll files with new ones.
Two methods to obtain the new dll files:
A. Find a computer with similar configuration and copy the dll files over to your computer.
B. Run the "Extract.exe" utility from DISK#1 of MSOFFICE DISK to decompress the dll files residing in
other disks.
Q: When I try to load my JEDEC file into the Impulse3 software, I get the error message "I/O translation
5027: Format error in file. ".
A. Make sure the JEDEC file is in binary format, not hexadecimal. Click on the Device button in the Synthesis Options
group. The option "JEDEC Normal" should be selected. If it is not select, select it and recompile your
design. This will create the necessary binary format JEDEC file.
Q: When I try to open my JEDEC or POF file in the Impulse3 software, I get the error message "I/O translation
5025: Partial or no data translated, file: ." .
A. Increase the User Memory Size variable to be about the same size as the file you wish to load. The size can
be adjusted by selecting the Swap File option from the Preferences pull-down menu. You should NOT modify the name
of the swap file.
Q: I receive a "bad command or command not found" at the DOS prompt when I type impulse3.
A. Make sure the PATH statement in the autoexec.bat file contains the directory where you installed the programmer
software.
Q: I get a "Cannot find a Programmer Pod" message when the software is started or I get a "Lost
Contact with Programmer Pod" message during programmer operation.
A. Check that power is being applied to the programmer pod. If the pod is powered up, the green status light should
be lit.
B. Make sure the programmer pod is connected to a parallel port on your PC using the cable supplied with the pod.
C. Check for the presence of electronic devices (security keys, automatic switches, etc.) on the same parallel
port the programmer is connected to. Though the programmer might function properly with some devices present, this
cannot be guaranteed.
D. Make sure that the appropriate port driver is selected. See the "Hardware" option menu under "Preferences".
Also, see the "Parallel Port Driver" section of the readme2.txt file that is created during installation.
Q: I receive a "Memory 5003: Out of memory" message when I run the Impulse3 software.
A. Check to make sure that you have enough memory available (at least 3MB of extended, XMS, memory) in your
PC to run this program. If you have DOS 4.0 or above, you can type "mem" to see how much memory is available.
Q: I receive a "Fatal Error 286.2230: Load program failed -- Out of memory --" message.
A. Check to make sure that you have enough memory available (at least 2MB of extended, XMS, memory) in your
PC to run this program. If you have DOS 4.0 or above, you can type "mem" to see how much memory is available.
B. Check your config.sys file for the line "DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE /NOEMS" or something similar. The
EMM386 driver which comes with MSDOS (5.0 or earlier), or Microsoft Windows, should not be installed with the /NOEMS
option.(The driver from MSDOS 6.0 or later will work with the /NOEMS option.
Q: The "JEDEC Data Editor" seems to do nothing
A. Check the following:
1. Make sure your path statement has the path to directory where you installed the programmer software (ie. if
you installed the software in a directory called "PROGRAMR" then C:\PROGRAMR needs to be in your path)
2. Read editjed.txt that is in your programmer directory. Make sure the text editor you have specifed in myeditor.bat
is in your path.
3. If you have set the enviroment variables "TMP" or "TEMP" (type "set" at a DOS
prompt to check) on your PC, make sure the directories that they point to actually exist on your PC.
Q: I receive an error "7002: Could not open lock file".
A. This is the byproduct of an incomplete software installation, update, or upgrade. The error indicates that the
programmer software could not find the installation lock file that gets generated with a completed installation,
update, or upgrade. Ignore the message and select "OK". This message will continue to pop up until the
installation is completed by selecting "Upgrade" from the "Config" menu and following directions.
Q: I receive "Incompatible user data for device selected" when I read my JEDEC file into Impulse3.
A. Check that the correct JEDEC file for the device selected is used
Q: I receive selftest errors (e.g. Dac calibration failed) when the Impulse software starts up.
A. Try a slower port driver. The port driver can be slowed through the "Hardware" option in the "Preferences"
pull-down menu.
Q: The software doesn't startup (General Protection Fault) during install.
A. The most likely cause is that something in your PC's configuration is conflicting with the programmer software.
Also, your memory manager may be configured such that the programmer software can't get enough memory to run. Try
removing items from your autoexec.bat and config.sys files until you find the item that is causing the problem.
Q: I receive "VMEM FATAL: Error writing to swap file" or the software exits to DOS without warning.
A. Check your enviroment variables "TMP" or "TEMP" and make sure that they are set to a
directory that has enough hard disk space to hold the swap file. The swap file size is calculated by adding 400
Kbytes to the "User Memory Size" (default for User Memory Size is 1MByte).
Q: How do I program the security fuse on the Impulse3 ?
A. There are two ways;. do both to ensure that you are programming the security bit.
1.Use the "Program Security Bit" option in the dialogue box that opens when the Device->Program command
is issued
2.Edit the appropriate field of the JEDEC map so that the security bit is set to the proper value.
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