Irvine, CA and Toronto, Canada — (press release excerpt) — TransDimension Inc. and Arcturus Networks Inc. today announced a USB developer's platform for evaluating and designing in USB On-The-Go (OTG) host and function controllers. The partnership will combine the expertise of both Arcturus and TransDimension to provide a USB development solution for the Arcturus uCdimm microcontroller module. This partnership will enable developers of next-generation USB connected devices to capitalize on functionality never before available, while leveraging the power associated with the industry leading ColdFire MCF5272 microprocessor.

TransDimension's patent-pending, high performance, single chip OTG host/function controller, the OTG243, has an architecture that is optimized for mobile device interconnectivity. TransDimension has designed the OTG243 by leveraging their market leading embedded USB host chips/core, software, and total solutions. TransDimension's OTG solutions are a step beyond current interconnectivity technologies for mobile devices, set top boxes, and Internet appliances. TransDimension has co-authored the OTG Compliance Plan for the USB2.0 specification, and contributed to the development of the USB OTG specification, and the Mini USB Analog Carkit Interface Specification to accelerate the proliferation of OTG into the marketplace.

Arcturus brings to the relationship their highly extensible, royalty free uClinux operating system and uCdimm hardware based on the Motorola ColdFire MCF5272 microprocessor. Arcturus uCdimm microcontroller module is a tiny form factor, single board computers (SBC) ideal as a design-in component of an OEM product and suitable for various vertical markets.

The complete development package includes, the Arcturus uCdimm Coldfire 5272 module, with 8MB RAM, 2 or 4 MB of Flash, dual Ethernet controllers, (10BaseT and 10/100BaseT), high-speed and RS232 serials, the uCevolution development platform, uClinux 2.4.17 source, binary and complete toolchain distribution, plus the TransDimension industry leading USB hardware and drivers to enable host, device and OTG functionality. The combination of these technologies provides a complete USB development platform for ColdFire 5272 based products.

The USB Developer Kit is currently available through TransDimension at a price of $499 for the evaluation module, associated USB software and documentation. The Arcturus uCdimm ColdFire 5272 development kit is currently from Arcturus for $1495.

About USB On-The-Go

USB On-The-Go (OTG), a supplement to the USB 2.0 specification, eliminates the current limitation in USB that requires a PC to act as host and exchange data for its connected devices. Today, more than 1.1 billion products are designed with USB ports, making USB the dominant I/O connectivity standard in the market. However, the greatest limitation of USB today is the fact that it does not allow point-to-point communication between devices and therefore has not been widely adopted by consumer electronic devices, such as mobile phones and PDA's. As these devices are gaining in popularity and intelligence, the requirement for a direct connection to each other is also growing. The answer to this requirement is the standard called USB On-The-Go.

 
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