new comer

Oh, there's a lot of pitfalls you can fall into with digital design that aren't in books. I suspect that Jim's real point is that if you can't build regular circuits then trying to build applications specific integrated ones isn't going to be a smashing success.

So if it's digital ASICs that float your boat, build a stereo with ports that conform to Sony's IEEE-1394 multimedia spec...

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com

Now there's a real "spec" for you ;-)

I suspect USB2+ will win out.

...Jim Thompson

--
|  James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
|  Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
|  Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
|  Phoenix, Arizona            Voice:(480)460-2350  |             |
|  E-mail Address at Website     Fax:(480)460-2142  |  Brass Rat  |
|       http://www.analog-innovations.com           |    1962     |
             
I love to cook with wine.      Sometimes I even put it in the food.

1394 is good for video, and always a generation ahead of USB in speed. It's also peer-peer, so you don't need to have a great lunking PC taking up space in your system unless you want to.

Here's the last thing I worked on before I left the corporate world. Uses multiple 1394 links, which were chosen because USB just can't cut it:

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com

'Cept that 1394 and USB2 are virtually identical data rates, and USB2 is decidedly cheaper

...Jim Thompson

--
|  James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
|  Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
|  Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
|  Phoenix, Arizona            Voice:(480)460-2350  |             |
|  E-mail Address at Website     Fax:(480)460-2142  |  Brass Rat  |
|       http://www.analog-innovations.com           |    1962     |
             
I love to cook with wine.      Sometimes I even put it in the food.

3.2Gbps > 480kbps in my book -- how about yours?

Granted, 1394b was only up to 800kbps last time I looked, but that still makes the difference for moderately high-def video.

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com

3.2Gbps is optical. And the 800kbps is a bit "iffy".

...Jim Thompson

--
|  James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
|  Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
|  Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
|  Phoenix, Arizona            Voice:(480)460-2350  |             |
|  E-mail Address at Website     Fax:(480)460-2142  |  Brass Rat  |
|       http://www.analog-innovations.com           |    1962     |
             
I love to cook with wine.      Sometimes I even put it in the food.

Hey

I am new to ASIC design. Do you have any recommendation like web site, books?

Thanks a lot

Hope not! Fortunately, 1394 is well entrenched in the video world.

--
Mark

As far as I'm concerned, USB has *always* been iffy. I've had to re-install WinBlows many times to get USB back. I *hate* USB! ...though I don't much care about 1394 either.

--
  Keith

Windows? Who said anything about Windows?

1394 from one FPGA to another, managed by embedded processors running a small kernel, works just fine and dandy.

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com

I've had just the opposite experience... USB *always* works.

...Jim Thompson

--
|  James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
|  Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
|  Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
|  Phoenix, Arizona            Voice:(480)460-2350  |             |
|  E-mail Address at Website     Fax:(480)460-2142  |  Brass Rat  |
|       http://www.analog-innovations.com           |    1962     |
             
I love to cook with wine.      Sometimes I even put it in the food.

I'm all for that. My 1488/1489 designs are still selling strong after

40 years ;-)

...Jim Thompson

--
|  James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
|  Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
|  Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
|  Phoenix, Arizona            Voice:(480)460-2350  |             |
|  E-mail Address at Website     Fax:(480)460-2142  |  Brass Rat  |
|       http://www.analog-innovations.com           |    1962     |
             
I love to cook with wine.      Sometimes I even put it in the food.

Can't say as I've had much of a problem with 1394 either. It just works. I have a little digicam that claims to have both interfaces (and technically, it does), but for some reason known only to the Japanese engineers the USB port only works with still pictures and the

1394 only with the digital video!

USB, at least in come cases, has installation issues if you do the sequence wrong, but once working it seems very, very good, at least with Win2K and later, and Linux.

I did have a problem with a USB keyboard getting itself deleted and requiring a keyboard to get it set up again. Fortunately, the computer had PS2 mouse/keyboard ports and I could stick an old PS2 keyboard on there to get it back up. 8-(

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

--
"it\'s the network..."                          "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog  Info for designers:  http://www.speff.com

Bah. Long live RS232!

cheers,

Al

Burst data rates are similar. You'll probably find CPU utilization lower under firewire. Under sustained data transfers, 1394 is supposedly faster than USB2. My Maxtor firewire drive does read transfers around 32 MB/s (limited by the firewire chip set in the drive). Does anyone have transfer rates for USB2.0 external drives?

Under Windoze 2k and XP, I haven't had problems with 1394 when dealing with video transfers and external hard drives. In the DOS world, I've had better success rate using 1394 than USB (this is a driver issue). Of course, I haven't had any problems using USB on Windows 2k and XP for cameras and memory fobs.

--
Mark

I always hold my breath when I plug in a USB device or print to the USB printer. The chances of it failing are inversely proportional to the time alloted for the task.

Thompson

I havent' used 1394 for video for six or seven years. While I never had it completely fail, like USB does for (to?) me, I had a lot of problems with dropped connections. Perhaps things have gotten better. I liked

1394 when it worked. I kinda even like USB 2.0, when it works.

My problem was with Win2K on my home system. It just lost it one day. I did everythign to try to get it back and ended up re-installing everything. What a PITA.

I never understood the purpose of a USB keyboard or mouse (or printer, for that matter).

--
  Keith