Transcript Slide 1
USB • Devices are completely hot-swappable. Because USB also distributes power, many USB devices don’t require a separate power supply • Although a bus-powered device must be attached upstream to either a host PC or a powered hub. Which would require some power. • There are four types of USB connectors: Type A, Type B, Mini B, and Mini A. USB 1.1 specifies the Type A and Type B. USB 2.0 specifies the Type A, Type B, and Mini B. The Mini A connector was developed as part of the USB OTG specification and is used for smaller peripherals, such as cell phones. USB Speed • USB 1.1, the original USB standard, has two data rates: 12 Mbps for devices such as disk drives that need high-speed throughput and 1.5 Mbps for devices such as joysticks that need much lower bandwidth. • The USB protocol is isochronous (allowing guaranteed realtime performance) and unidirectional. Blocked channels are bidirectional and may or may not include error checking. USB Networking • USB uses a tiered hub-and-spoke connection scheme. The tier starts with a hub, to which a few devices can be connected. When the top level runs out of connector space, another hub can be added. A single USB port can support up to 127 devices. • USB hubs need to have some intelligence, because they are required to sense the addition of a device to an operating bus and inform the host. The hub will not apply bus power to a device until the host has assigned it an address, and the bus must recognize high-speed communication by the host (and not send it out over unshielded wires or to devices it knows can handle only the lower speed.) Data Transmission • USB relies on the host controller to manage all transactions. • USB devices request to the host, specifying what needs to be done. • Then the host makes the transfer descriptor: source node, destination node, amount of data, read or write, speed, and the location of the memory buffer. FireWire • The IEEE 1394 standard is a fast, scalable, low-cost digital interface. It was conceived by Apple® Computer and developed within the IEEE 1394 Working Group. • FireWire is an all-digital interface, there's no need to convert digital data into analog for data transmission. • FireWire normally uses 6-pin, two lines for power and two twisted pairs for data transmission. • There is also a smaller 4-pin that lacks power and ground pins. FireWire Speed • FireWire supports data rates of 100, 200, and 400 Mbps, and it supports up to 63 devices with a maximum cable length of 4.5 meters between devices. • FireWire is a peer-to-peer interface, it makes it possible to dub from one device (a digital video camera, for instance) to another without a computer. FireWire Application • By process of negotiation, one device is selected as the host and bus controller. • The controller contains: speeds, bus topology, bus bandwidth, power available and being consumed, and number of identities of isochronous channels. FireWire Networking • The FireWire protocol is a peer-to-peer system which has the potential to connect computers to each other in a high-speed network. • Each device is responsible for acquiring the bus during a portion of the cycle to transmit its packetized data. Data Transmission • Prior to the start of the bus cycle, nodes wishing to make isochronous transfers query the host. • At the start of the next bus cycle the channels are transmitted in order by each host that requested a channel. • Then when isochronous data has been transmitted, and there is a defined gap in data transmission, the asynchronous data sends out its packets. FireWire characteristics • Hot-pluggable — you don't have to turn off your storage system or computer to connect or disconnect it, and you don't even need to restart your computer. • FireWire-A max raw data rate is 400Mbps (50MB/sec); typical sustained transfer rate is about 40MB/sec. FireWire-B doubles these rates. • Supports up to 63 devices per bus. A typical bus will have between two and perhaps a dozen devices. • Hubs are available to provide "tree" layouts in addition to the more common "daisy-chain". • Cable lengths can extend up to 14 feet (4.5 meters) between devices. • Cables are easy to connect and you don't need device IDs or terminators. USB2.0 vs. FireWire USB 2.0 • 1.5 Mbit/s 12Mbit/s 480Mbit/s supported. • USB controller is required to control the bus and data transfer. • Cable up to 5 m. • Up to 127 devices supported. • Power supply to external devices is 500 mA/5V (max). • Full compatibility with USB 1.1 devices. FireWire (IEEE1394) • 100 Mbit/s 200Mbit/s 400Mbit/s supported. • Works without control, devices communicate peer-to-peer. • Cable up to 4.5 m. • Up to 63 devices supported. • Power supply to external devices is 1.25A/12V (max.). • The only computer bus used in digital video cameras. Read Speed • I was curious about the maximum sustained READ speed of the FireWire versus USB reader so I ran ATTO's ExpressPro Tools. • This shows the maximum realistic throughput of the two kinds of readers. In this test, the FireWire reader is 5.8 times faster than the USB reader. Hmmm. The FireWire reader is a lot slower than the fastest FireWire hard drives (25MB/sec). Maybe the limitation has to do with the speed of the flash card media itself. TimeLine File Copying Connection Direct USB 2.0 FireWire Business Disk Winmark 6510 4870 6040 Hi-End Winmark 21300 13900 18500 Transfer Begin 41700 12400 27400 Transfer End 25600 12300 25400 CPU usage 17% 15,7% 12% Access time, ms. 12.5 13.3 12.8