USB industry impatiently awaits Windows 98

Electronic News, Dec 8, 1997 by Jim DeTar

CAMPBELL, CALIF. -- The Universal Serial Bus (USB), touted since Fall Comdex 1996 as the next step in Plug-and-Play bus technology, has yet to take off despite the fact that top-10 PC systems companies including Compaq, Dell, IBM and Gateway have designed USB into their systems.

In an ironic twist, the market continues to wait for Microsoft Windows 98 which will enable full implementation of USB in PCs. That is the main roadblock and it has been thrown across the path of systems vendors by Microsoft--which along with Intel was one of the primary initiators of USB technology.

Meanwhile, peripherals vendors are not waiting for Windows 98. Zilog, for example, will today introduce a pair of USB (Universal Serial Bus) microcontrollers, dubbed the Z8E520 and Z86U18, which the company believes to be the industry's first single-chip "second generation" USB devices, designed for multiprotocol mouse and peripheral applications.

Kawasaki Joins USB Fray

Similarly, Kawasaki LSI is now offering the first three members of a planned family of USB controllers, dubbed the USBX line, each with increasing levels of integration for more complex applications.

This new approach to offering USB 1.0-compliant controllers with multiple variants and user configurability also gives OEMs the ability to offer their own proprietary value added. Targeted applications for Kawasaki's USB controllers include, but are not limited to, digital cameras, printers, mice, keyboards, PC speakers, joysticks and scanners.

The Kawasaki USBX family initially consists of three members with others to be added over time. The simplest version contains the USB transceiver, serial interface engine (SIE) and 5,000 programmable gates of logic. The most integrated version has these elements plus 16-bit processor, ROM, RAM, PLL and clock generator, watchdog timer, and numerous other blocks of general purpose I/O. Pricing for USBX controllers ranges from $2 to $10 depending on quantity and configuration.

Frank Corbett, Kawasaki's VP of sales and marketing, in a statement that reflects his recognition that the USB standard continues to evolve while the market waits for Windows 98, said, "We take responsibility for upgrading the family to meet the various improvements in USB standard specifications on behalf of all of our customers."

Mike McCullough, Zilog's director of keyboard/pointing devices, conceded in an interview with Electronic News that despite PC companies' eagerness to adopt the technology, the pace of USB peripherals sales has been slow so far because of their limited functionality under Windows 95.

Zilog Targets Human Interface

"Our parts are aimed at the human interface class, that is mice, keyboards etc. All of our customers have designs and all have given them to their customers--the Gateways and Dells. But today there is not much activity because Windows 98 has not shipped. The whole point of USB is the consumer. You can sort of get there with Windows 95 but you have to ship a diskette with it. What you have is an industry that has made an enormous investment hanging fire waiting for Windows 98 to ship."

Once it gets rolling, USB is expected to dominate the market. Mr. McCullough said he expects the crossover to take place around 1999. "The starting date will be with the release of Windows 98. Within a year after the release of Windows 98, USB will be the dominant connection mechanism for the PC."

He added that lessons were learned from the lack of enthusiasm for plug-and-play when it was first introduced. "I find it interesting that Microsoft and Intel, Microsoft in particular, had to drum up industry support for plug-and-play. A lesson was seeded in the industry. This time we had almost the opposite effect. From the day they raised it (USB), the industry has chased it vigorously. Now companies are sitting around tapping their feet waiting. But the idea is so fundamentally sound that it's closer to being a foregone conclusion (that it will occur)."

Zilog's Z86U18, priced at about $1.45 each in quantities of 5,000, is suitable for keyboard, game pad and other applications. It features a USB serial interface engine (1.5 megabit at six MHz), transceiver and microcontroller integrated into a USB function controller. Additional features include on-chip oscillator that accepts a crystal ceramic resonator, power consumption of 60 milliwatts at six MHz, 4-volt to 5.5V operation range, 32 I/O lines and 188 bytes of general purpose RAM.

Zilog's Z8E520 OTP version is sampling priced at approximately $2.50 each in quantities of 5,000 units with volume production expected in 1Q98. The Z8C520 ROM version is expected to sample in 2Q98. Both products will be offered in 20-pin DIP and SOIC packages, and 18-pin SDIP and SSOP packages. The second USB controller, the Z86U18 ROM part, is shipping in volume quantities today; OTP parts will sample in 1Q98.