USBSoftMux™ Preliminary Data Sheet

USBSoftMux is the first USB personality changer available for today’s mobile devices such as PDAs, Smart Phones and Media Players. Most devices today are single USB function peripherals handling tasks such as personal information (PIM) and file synchronization, device configuration and software updates. As mobile devices increase in functionality (ex: external/internal storage, built-in cameras, Wireless WAN networking), the ability to remote these features as USB peripherals to an external host will increase the total value of the product. This increase in value can be attributed to the mobile device’s potential in replacing a handful of separate USB peripherals (flash card readers, cameras, wireless network adapters) that perform similar functions.

USBSoftMux allows end-users to change the personality of their mobile device on the fly to accommodate different usage scenarios, from data synchronization (PIM, files) to Mass Storage (SD/CF card reader, direct local storage access) to OEM-specific or ISV-supplied personalities. This allows a user to morph his or her device into the appropriate USB peripheral for a specific situation.

See USBSoftMux at work connecting an HP iPAQ as a mass storage device to:

Windows XP, Linux and Apple OS X.

iPAQ connected to XP
	Apple OS X	Red Hat® Linux 8.0	Windows XP

Key User benefits:

•  Ability to select the best USB personality for a given situation.
•  Increased connectivity ease for the mobile user
  • Mass storage alleviates compatibility issues with proprietary file transfer techniques.
  • Easier file manipulation since storage units appears as physical drives.
•  Greater interoperability with various desktop hosts: Windows®, Apple®, Linux or any operating system that understands standard USB classes.
•  Dynamically add new capabilities for future scenarios.

Key benefits to Device OEMs:

•   This is an opportunity for OEMs to add differentiating features without additional hardware.
•  USBSoftmux is a software solution utilizing the pre-existing USB device controller and operating system services.
•  USBSoftmux has a minimal ROM footprint (< 150KB for the basic personalities).
•  Build into your system a multi-function, extendable architecture that can be populated with personalities that meets customer and product requirements today and allows for upgraded personalities in the future.
•  Expands market by supporting USB hosts that use a variety of operating systems (Apple, Linux, Windows).

UsbSoftMux user application

Personalities:

USBSoftMux Mass Storage

• User benefits:
  • Rapid transfer of files without using a proprietary transport.
  • Simple drag and drop file transfers.
  • Simple double-click to open files (images, documents) and play media (music, video clips) instantly.
  • Compatible with Apple Mac, Linux and Windows computers.
  • No need to install custom software or drivers on the host.
  • Direct access to local storage including SD/MMC cards, CompactFlash cards, Flash File Stores, and RAM Store.
• USB Mass Storage Class 1.2 (SCSI-2 I/F) compliant.
• Multiple-LUNs (Up to 8 Storage Slots) and can consist of local fixed storage (Flash file system, RAM file system, hard drives) or removable storage(SD/MMC, CF Cards).
• Fully supports media removal. Mobile device behaves as a USB card reader peripheral.
• Local RAM file store is remoted as a read-only virtual drive using the FAT file system. Allows external hosts to “see” files and directories under non-FAT based file systems.

Other possible personalities:

• Remote Networking via RNDIS, Ethernet CDC or WMCD. Mobile device can appear as a networking gateway for an external host.
• Human Interface Device (HID)
  • Game controller for PC/Console game applications.
  • Digitizer for desktop photo editing and pen-based applications.
• Digital cameras.
• Remote built-in cameras as USB Still Image Class peripherals.
• Remote camera as USB web-cams.
  
• OEM specific synchronization or diagnostic/manufacturing-specific personalities.

 

Personality SDK
Deliver an SDK that allows the creation and integration of custom personalities by OEMs or ISVs and peripheral manufacturers.

System Architecture:

• UsbSoftMux is a portable software stack written in C/C++. A high degree of hardware abstraction allows easy re-use of USB personalities between platforms. The stack can be used in OS-less devices or in a multi-threaded real time operating system environment.

Codetelligence can port UsbSoftMux to virtually any operating system and hardware platform upon request. Versions for Windows CE are available and ready to configure for your platform. Contact sales@codetelligence.com for more information.

Apple® is trademark of Apple Computer Inc. Red Hat® is a registered trademark of Red Hat, Inc.