USB 3.0 Connectors

The USB (Universal Serial Bus) standard has come a long way since its development in the 1990s, and the types of USB connectors have expanded as the standard has evolved.  The USB standard defines cables, connectors and protocols used in a bus for communication between computers and peripherals and for power supply.  USB has effectively replaced a variety of earlier interfaces, such as serial and parallel ports, as well as separate power chargers for portable devices.

The original USB specification only defined Standard-A and Standard-B plugs and receptacles.  As the specification has been revised over the years, many more connector types have been included as you will see in our survey of connectors for the USB 2.0 Standard and how they have been modified in the most recent USB 3.0 SuperSpeed Standard.

Here are the connectors defined in the latest versions of the USB Standard: Read more »

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The Evolving World of SSD Form Factors

Solid State Drives have opened up a world of possibilities due to the many advantages they offer over traditional hard drives.

Here’s how SSDs compare to rotating media:

• Smaller
• Better read and write performance
• Use less power
• More durable
• Weigh less

These characteristics make SSD an ideal technology for use in a number of applications.  Their size, speed and durability are particularly desirable for use in portable computing devices, like laptops, tablets, cell phones and portable media players.  Their durability is a distinct advantage in embedded systems, industrial devices and military applications.

Until now, the use of solid state drives was limited by their high price and by the lack of standards that capitalized on SSDs many advantages.  However, both these factors have been changing. Read more »

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What Is USB 3.0?

You may have noticed the packaging on your new electronic devices touting USB 3.0 or “SuperSpeed” technology and wondered why you should care.  There are significant reasons to seek out products that meet the USB 3.0 standard, and this standard will make many new products possible.

“USB” or “universal serial bus” describes the cables, connectors and protocols used for connection, communication and power supply between computers and electronic devices.  It was designed to standardize the connection of computer peripherals—such as keyboards, digital cameras, and portable media players—to personal computers.

INCREASED USB SPEED

USB 1.1, released in 1998, was the first widely used standard, followed by USB 2.0 which resulted from an industry initiative to increase data transfer rates.  The data transfer rate in USB 2.0 has been increased Read more »

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An Overview of Pages, Blocks and FTLs in a Solid-State Drive (SSD)

Solid State Drives offer benefits such as speed, low power consumption, durability and low weight.   However, they have not yet become as widely used as traditional hard drives, primarily because they are much more expensive.

HDDs and the most common Solid-State Drives can be used relatively interchangeably.  Their general form factors (2.5” or 3.5”), as well as the ways they connect to systems (usually SATA), are often identical, though many new form factors and connector types have emerged to take advantage of flash media’s speed and small size.

HDDs and SSDs differ in the way data is managed.  It is far more complicated on a solid state drive than on traditional rotating media.  NAND flash, the storage components used in SSDs, have some major limitations that must be managed, leaving room for manufacturers to fail in properly executing important functions that could impact performance.

Understanding NAND Flash

Reading/Writing by Page and Erasing by Block

NAND flash is organized into Pages and Blocks.  Each Block contains a specified number of Pages (32 to 256), which in turn contain a specified amount of data (2 to 8KB).  Unlike traditional rotating hard drives, data in NAND flash can’t be directly overwritten.  When any data changes, it must be written again since it cannot be updated:

1. “Green” data is written. Read more »

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