Accelerating USB 3.0 Implementations - Time Is Money

With the launch of chipsets incorporating USB 3.0 support, this latest USB interface standard is now becoming widely available on board level and system platforms. How long, though, will end-users in the industry have to wait before they can benefit from this technology in OEM products like vision systems? And how does the cost situation look?

USB 3.0 is emerging as the new interface standard for fast peripherals. This need is evi­dent in the field of appliances that can generate added value from this nomi­nal 5Gbps performance boost beyond the maximum USB 2.0 performance (nominal 600 Mbps). With up to 2400 Mbps of usable data rate, it achieves a 7.5 times faster throughput than with USB 2.0 (320 Mbps).

With the launch of chipsets incorporating USB 3.0 support, this latest USB interface standard is now becoming widely available on board level and system platforms.

Applications that profit from this performance boost are, for example, fast and high-resolution printers and scanners, or mass storage. Further ex­amples are high-resolution rear-view cameras for all-round visibility in trucks, high-resolution test and meas­urement devices, and a vast number of vision applications like camera-supported pick-and-place (PnP), intel­ligent surveillance systems in the traf­fic technology, or digital microscopes, to name a few.

USB 3.0 focus market vision systems

In addition to Gigabit Ethernet, today in the vision area it is already becom­ing apparent that USB3 vision for close-range applications of up to five meters will evolve into the leading standard. The USB3 vision stand­ard is entirely based on the USB 3.0 specification and additionally inserts GenICam - a generic programming interface that simplifies application porting and promotes interoperability of USB devices from different manu­facturers. Customers benefit not only from the actual vision specifications but also from the advantages of USB 3.0 itself.

Advantages of USB 3.0

Apart from the immense performance boost in comparison to USB 2.0 - the USB 3.0 bus is backwards-compatible to USB 2.0 and 1.1. It further excels due to its simple cabling that provides power and data communication in one cable, which, in turn, serves to reduce installation work. Also, manufacturers are making their peripheral devices PnP-capable, so all you need for this is defined 'on the wire.' That results in significantly less im­plementation work for the system integrator.

The USB 3.0 bus is backwards-compatible to USB 2.0 and 1.1.

What's more, in future, USB 3.0 will be found on nearly all industrial computer platforms as USB 3.0 support will im­mediately be integrated into the chipsets - and presumably for a very long time to come. That saves a great amount of hardware development costs in com­parison to standards like Camera Link, even though this standard depending on the manufacturer can process an 80-bit video track with up to 6.8 Gbps or 5400 Mbps, and con­tinues to be supported via PCI- or PCIe-based frame-grabber cards.

Consumer market pushes USB 3.0 cameras

If you observe the consumer camera market which is already switching to USB3.0, it becomes clear that the cor­responding embedded camera technol­ogy can be used for close-range industrial applications. The main advantages therefore are reduced costs with added performance, more comfort and higher integration. Also, considering the fact that in video applications the pro­cessing of a multitude of tasks can be handed over to a GPU rather than to a frame grabber, in this area and in the long term, the PC ecosystem offers the more promising solution for a large range of new designs.

USB 3.0 now available in the chipset

The most significant cost factor in PC implementation of USB 3.0 is the avail­ability in the chipset. Since the launch of third-generation Intel Core proces­sors and AMD Embedded R-Series processors, the new interface standard USB 3.0 has been integrated into these manufacturers' chipsets and thus is available as a standard on embedded board and system level, which proves immense cost-saving.

USB 3.0 now available in the chipset

USB 3.0 implementations by OEMs

Widespread introduction into the in­dustrial environment has not yet taken place and in terms of embedded PC technology can be seen as still in its infancy, as the USB 3.0 chipsets have only just been launched and still have to be designed-in.

On the other hand, a relatively in­expensive way to realize this is not re­ally available: At present, third-gener­ation Intel Core processors are not yet available in the inexpensive Celeron variants. Consequently, a correspond­ing inexpensive implementation does not exist. And the AMD R-Series must first overcome design-in obstacles. So bearing this in mind, it will take a certain amount of time for inexpensive OEM implementations to appear on the market, unless alternative solutions are developed in the meantime with, for example, USB 3.0 bridges.

Current most cost-effective USB 3.0 implementations

This can be achieved, for exam­ple, with Celeron processors of the second-generation Intel Core (code­named Sandy Bridge) and an addi­tional NEC bridge for USB 3.0. Using a method like this, solutions ready for serial production have been realized since the beginning of 2011. One such solution was a COM Express type 6-based computer-on-module (Fig. 1). It offers developers a fast time-to-market for this highly attractive interface. This design with USB 3.0 is one of the first embedded implemen­tations which customers have been able to use before the introduction of chipsets that support USB3.0 and has thus enabled them to accelerate time-to-market of USB 3.0 platforms.

The COM Express basic computer-on-module with type-6 pinout comes with 1x1.00GHz to 2x1.60GHz scalable Intel Celeron processor and HM65 PCH. With two optional USB 3.0 interfaces, it offers an especially cost-efficient USB 3.0 configuration, which has been available since the beginning of 2011 for early adoptors, and is fitted with the NEC USB 3.0 Bridge

The importance of such early availability of latest technologies is especially cru­cial for innovative compa­nies, as when the chipsets are launched, end-user awareness and the demand for USB 3.0 increase suddenly. This gives a real competitive edge to OEMs who want to deliver USB 3.0 implementations parallel to chipset launches. That is pos­sible only if you already have this type of technology ready for mass production.

First customer implementations with USB 3.0

A first customer using the mod­ule, which works with a USB 3.0 bridge on a solution with Intel Celeron processor of the 'Sandy Bridge' generation, will present a first, highly integrated solution at the Vision 2012 which uses cost-efficient USB 3.0 camera modules. Another customer is currently developing a traffic surveillance solution and a third is creating a box PC for SFF vision ap­plications, to name just three examples in the vision segment.

With twelve modules and boards in the form factors COM Express, Mini-ITX, Flex-ATX and CPCI, AMC as well as VPX, there is already a wide standard assortment of latest solutions based on Intel or AMD processors. These solutions already have USB 3.0 integrated in the chipset and can be adapted to suit customers’ specifications

All these applications are projects that promise technological leadership in the corresponding segment - for example, in combination with M2M solutions. Their competitive advantage time-wise in comparison to chipset- based solutions is at least the design-in phase or probably even longer, assuming that in future one wants to opt for using Ivy Bridge-based Intel Celeron processors.

USB 3.0 technology platforms for today and tomorrow

OEMs who did not start designing at the beginning of 2011, now, of course, have a much wider choice. To start us­ing this technology cost-efficiently, to­day, they will nevertheless either have to use the Celeron version with USB 3.0 bridge, as it will be a cost-efficient solution in the long term, or the new AMD Embedded R-Series processors, if attractive integrated 'embedded graphics' are required along with at­tractive pricing. It goes without say­ing that if inexpensive solutions are required, the third-generation Intel Core processors can be designed-in, in order to put OEMs in a position to directly move to the same platform when the Intel Celeron processor version presumably becomes avail­able at a later date. But for high-end solutions, there is no way around the third-generation Intel Core proces­sors. Some customers will also be looking for a solution based on ARM processors and USB 3.0.

Hardware integration services for USB 3.0 solutions

All these solutions are already possible today. And, for all these platforms, em­bedded computer manufacturers offer standard products, custom designs and corresponding hardware integration services. So customers can concentrate on what they do best - the application itself. The corresponding application-ready embedded computing platforms and the matching hardware integration services including software support for, say, drivers or migrations are pro­vided by a partner. The partner on the basis of serial standard products delivers fast and efficient support for individual implementations in a very close and trusting development part­nership. In this way, bottlenecks can very efficiently be done away with.

Along with modular AMC- and VPX-based systems, with the KISS 2U server family, first proofs-of-concept on system level have already been realized. The servers are equipped with a Flex ATX motherboard and offer several PCIe 3.0 interfaces as well as a PCI port along with USB 3.0. In comparison to designs with second-generation Intel Core processors, the KISS server in 2U rack mount format offers up to 20 per cent more computing performance, 50 per cent more graphic performance and an increase of up to 40 per cent in performance-per-watt