Hello,
> I have to implement a data transfer from a custom board (to be
> designed) and a standard PC (Win98/XP).
> An interesting solution could be perhaps the use of a standard USB
> connection so that the PC could see my board just a removible disk.
> In this way it would be also not necessary to write any driver for the
> PC side (at least under XP, I suppose).
>
> Is there anybody who faced this kind of problem or that have
> implemented an USB mass storage protocol with a microcontroller?
> Every tips about other alternative solutions (ie. memory cards or
> other standard interfaces) are welcome.
>
> Thanks
> Marco
Cygnal ( now Silicon Labs) has a couple of parts the C8051F320 and 321 which contain a hot rod 8051 core and are USB2.0 full(not high) speed compliant. The development kit comes with USBXpress which contains the firmware for the client side and a Windows USB device driver for the PC side. They also provide "Virtual Com Port" drivers which allow you to map the USB port to a COM port.
All well and good for your application. Now for *MY* little problem. I need to embed USB into a device which will communicate with a Pocket PC running WinCe.net 4.2 for Pocket PC aka Pocket PC 2003. I have identified a compact flash USB Host side adapter which comes with a WINCE driver, but neither that company nor Cygnal will claim that I will be able to communicate with their drivers. The Cygnal chip code is designed to be used with the corresponding Win XP driver, and the CF USB adapter is - I think - designed to be a generic plug and play USB Host. Does anyone have any idea of a chip that comes with WinCE support? I'm really trying to avoid having to write my own WINCE driver as I am under a very aggressive time table.
TIA
Bob