Symwave Utilized LeCroy USB Host Emulation Platform

Symwave, Inc., supplier of system solutions for SuperSpeed USB devices, and LeCroy Corp., in serial data test solutions, announced their successful collaboration to accelerate the development of Symwave’s advanced, next generation SuperSpeed USB 3.0 to SATA storage device.

LeCroy Voyager USB 3.0 Protocol Verification System

Symwave utilized LeCroy’s Voyager M3 USB host emulation platform for system design validation and USB 3.0 specification compliance to achieve faster time-to-market for its consumer storage solution. Market research firm IDC estimates that over 120 Million personal storage devices will be shipped in 2012, with the vast majority having a USB interface (IDC, Nov. 2008).

External storage devices are widely expected to be the first to adopt the SuperSpeed USB standard due to the excessive time it takes to currently download or backup large media files over legacy USB or FireWire interfaces. For example, it would take almost 14 hours to transfer the contents of a 1 Terabyte (TB) drive over USB 2.0, compared to just 1.3 hours with USB 3.0. A 20 Gigabyte (GB) music library, or the equivalent of 20 hours of home video, will take over 20 minutes to transfer with USB 2.0, compared to 2 minutes with USB 3.0.

“The use of personal storage devices and the consumer’s expectations of product performance are growing exponentially. SuperSpeed USB 3.0 offers greater bus powering, more efficient power management, lower host CPU burden and a more than 10x transfer rate improvement,” according to John O’Neill, vice president of marketing at Symwave. “By year end, external storage products will achieve transfer rates of up to 400MB/sec leveraging Symwave’s performance leading products. To put that in perspective, this performance is almost 4 times faster than gigabit Ethernet which only a few years ago was considered more bandwidth than a consumer could ever use.”

To accelerate the development schedule of Symwave’s USB storage solution, the LeCroy Voyager M3 USB Protocol analyzer with integrated exerciser was used to emulate a USB 3.0 host controller, generate USB 3.0 traffic, and monitor end-to-end data transfers to the Symwave USB 3.0 device controller. The LeCroy ReadyLink feature provides full-function link layer emulation that automates all link layer handshaking, training, and flow control. The data analyzer and trace capture capabilities enabled the SuperSpeed data path to be tested and debugged for compliance with the USB 3.0 specification.

“LeCroy’s host emulator tools were instrumental in verifying the end-to-end transfer of USB 3.0 host traffic to and from our storage controller,” stated Chris Thomas, CTO of Symwave. “The ability to support link management in firmware and create host generator scripts from captured traces has enabled us to rapidly validate the system functionality and performance of our device controller with a high degree of confidence.”

“We are pleased to collaborate with a pioneer like Symwave to help jump-start the USB 3.0 market and accelerate the deployment of commercial products," said Michael Romm, Director of Product Development at LeCroy’s Protocol Solutions Group. "Working directly with Symwave’s R&D team has allowed LeCroy engineers to collect valuable feedback and add new capabilities to make the Voyager exerciser more flexible and configurable for SuperSpeed USB verification tasks.”

Symwave’s SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Leadership
Symwave continues to demonstrate significant market leadership in SuperSpeed USB 3.0 product developments. Several notable firsts include:

• Industry’s first SuperSpeed USB 3.0 PHY demonstration on November 17, 2008 during the USB-IF SuperSpeed Developers Conference
• World’s first SuperSpeed USB 3.0 mixed USB host/device vendor Interoperability demonstration during the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) held January 8-11, 2009
• World’s first SuperSpeed USB 3.0 to SATA controller demonstration at CES, showing a complete external storage solution in collaboration with first-tier hard disk drive manufacturers
• First SuperSpeed device to be submitted to the SuperSpeed USB Platform Integration Lab (PIL), hosted by Intel, for open interoperability testing with available host controllers

LeCroy’ SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Leadership
LeCroy’s Leadership in USB technology includes a long history that started with the introduction of the first CATC analyzer for USB 1.0 in 1996. This legacy continues today with several SuperSpeed USB accomplishments including:

• Introduction of the industry’s first SuperSpeed USB 3.0 integrated analyzer exerciser system in August 2008
• Shipment of the Industry’s first SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Analyzer system in September 2008
• Introduction of ReadyLink emulation mode which speeds product verification by providing a full USB 3.0 link layer in the Voyager Exerciser platform.