Recommend USB Book?

- M
- Michael D. Crawford
  
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posted
20 years ago

Tue, Jul 1, 2003 8:04 PM

Can anyone recommend a book for learning about the USB protocols? I'm not so much wanting to learn the electrical characteristics of USB so much as the data stream that goes over the wire.

I found some books at Amazon, but none of them seem to have consistently good reviews from the readers. I hate to buy bad technical books. I don't know which to get. Maybe you can tell me which of these is the best, or suggest a book I don't list.

Usually I depend on the book reviews at

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but they don't seem to have covered any USB books yet.

I know I need to read the protocol specification but specs aren't usually very tutorial, and often don't say much about the reasons behind anything.

I need something that covers USB 2.0 as well as the older standard. If a particular book only covered the old standard but was very good, I'd get that along with anything that covered the new standard.

Here's the books I found at

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USB Complete: Everything You Need to Know to Develop Custom USB Peripherals, by Jan Axelson, ISBN 0965081958

USB Design by Example, by John Hyde, ISBN 0471370487

Universal Serial Bus System Architecture (2nd Edition), by Don Anderson, Dave Dzatko, Mindshare Inc. ISBN 0201309750

Developing USB PC Peripherals by Wooi Ming Tan, 0929392647

USB Hardware and Software, by John Garney, Edward Solari, Kosar Jaff, Brad Hosler, Shelagh Callahan, ISBN 092939237X

Thanks for your help,

Mike

--
Michael D. Crawford
GoingWare Inc. - Expert Software Development and Consulting
http://www.goingware.com/
crawford@goingware.com

      Tilting at Windmills for a Better Tomorrow.

- M
- mk
  
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posted
20 years ago

Wed, Jul 2, 2003 12:56 PM

so

data

good

know

suggest a

don't

very

that

Peripherals, by

Dave

Hello Mike

I can only help you in the negative:

I have the first two books and I do not recommend them, the Axelson is by far the better of the two. You will learn far more from the spec and serious mining in Microsoft resources and the app notes of every chip maker you can find. I just took a look at your web site and so I apologise for the M word.

Michael Kellett snipped-for-privacy@mkesc.co.uk

- D
- Dave Hansen
  
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posted
20 years ago

Wed, Jul 2, 2003 1:56 PM

[...]

I read the first edition Mindshare book by Anderson a few years back when I was working on my first USB project. You probably couldn't design a system from it if it was your sole resource, but it's clearly written, and I think it has the information you're looking for (frame formats and so on).

I've never seen the Solari book, but judging from his PCI book (parts of which I've read), it will have a lot of material, but will require a lot of a priori knowledge.

Regards,

-=Dave

--
Change is inevitable, progress is not.

- R
- Ryan
  
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posted
20 years ago

Mon, Jul 7, 2003 3:36 PM

data

Go buy USB Complete and USB Design By Example and you will be covered as well as you can be when it comes to USB books.

As you mentioned (and others commented), these books are not a replacement for the USB 2.0 spec nor hardware data sheets. But, they are very helpful and most serious USB developers will have one or both on the shelf.

You probably want to use the USB-IF Developers Discussion Forum for further USB questions:

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Start by searching for "Jan Axelson" and "John Hyde" and you'll find them both to be active contributors.

Ryan