QuickLogic Speeds HDD Transfers With New UDMA Block

Continuing its commitment to the mobile device market, QuickLogic
Corporation has developed an UltraDMA (UDMA) system block
for its Customer Specific Standard Product (CSSP) platforms. Created in
conjunction with CSSP customers, the UDMA block speeds data transfers to
mass storage while reducing system power requirements.

The UDMA Proven System Block (PSB) adds to QuickLogic’s
suite of hard disk drive (HDD) interface blocks for the company’s
CSSP platforms, including PolarPro and ArcticLink. The UDMA block
quadruples the speed of parallel-ATA data transfers from 16 Mbytes/sec
to 66 Mbytes/sec. It works in ATA/ATAPI-5 modes as well as multi-word
DMA and PIO modes, and includes driver software for the Linux operating
system. Development of a Windows CE based software driver is also
planned for release.

“The performance enhancement that the new UDMA
PSB gives our ATA interface will support the design of mobile devices
that stream movies from a hard disk drive,”
said QuickLogic’s Principal Architect and
Senior Director of Systems Engineering, Judd Heape. “Designers
can also translate this performance increase into power savings by
putting the HDD into a low-power sleep mode in between data transfers.
The higher transfer speed means that the HDD spends more time asleep.”

QuickLogic’s development of the UDMA PSB arose
as the result of working with a customer on creation of a CSSP for a
wireless HDD product. “The customer wanted to
make sure the actual data transfer rate between the HDD and the
QuickLogic supplied USB High-speed On-the-Go (OTG) interface port was as
fast as possible, at least 200 Mbits/second,”
said Heape.

“QuickLogic worked very closely with the
customer and jointly defined the system architecture to create this
block which led to exceed their performance expectations. This solution
highlights QuickLogic’s complete approach to
fulfilling customer needs and how QuickLogic can successfully work
directly with customers to create and combine PSBs to address their most
challenging requirements.” The UDMA PSB is
available immediately as part of QuickLogic’s
CSSP support package.

QuickLogic Corporation