Computer Solutions Ltd

After supplying all your Embedded Development Tool needs for 42 years
Computer Solutions Ltd and its web shop are now closed.

Having reached the grand old age of 75 it is time to relax and fulfil other ambitions.

Its been an exciting ride with you, our customers, often on the bleeding edge of technology
and I thank you for your friendship, your trust, and your orders.

Stay well I wish you all success in your future projects.

Chris Stephens.

But what to do with the web site ? It has taken >12 man years of work to create a repository of knowledge on many aspects of the art and science of embedded microprocessor development and even after closing the shop it still gets over 4,000 visitors per month. So as a service to my customers I have decide to keep it live providing my technical insights on the products and then redirecting viewers to sites where they can purchase the items they used to buy from us. Follow the link "Home"

The "Information zone" consists of articles produced as background tutorials on subjects of interest to those designing new products. As different CPUs have became available this has lead to new development techniques and in particular to new ways of communicating between nodes.

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Information Zone

USB Protocol Analysers

New Products Explorer 280 - USB 3 range of Analysers and Test Message Generators
DEX - USB 2 compliance test suite

To receive literature on this top of the range protocol test system fill in this request

Our range of USB Analysers and Signal Generators provide the most cost effective way to investigate what is happening on your USB bus.

If you are developing target hardware with USB interfaces, developing the USB stack on the targets, developing the total application with code on the PC and the target or even on two targets using On-The-Go then what you need to be able to see is the transactions and packets that are transmitted over the bus. But USB is a complex beast and its not possible to do this by just putting a scope or logic analyser on the signal lines - what you need is an analyser that understand the details of the protocol and can present the data to you in an immediately understandable way. The Ellisys products do this and at such an amazingly low price that you can afford to give each engineer his own.

Explorer 200 - Full USB 2 analysis at up to 480Mbits/sec without breaking the bank

Explorer 260 - Complete package for USB 2 Analysis and Signal Generation

DEX - USB 2 compliance test suite

To receive literature on our range of cable USB analysers fill in this request

Explorer 300 - Analyses the latest Wireless USB and UWB standards over air

To receive literature on wireless USB fill in this request

Learn about USB with the Demo or visit our USB Tutorial

CMX USB device and host stacks simplify development of your embedded application

I like this little piece of hardware! Got my problem solved in a few hours after spending weeks of trying to find it without - J.T. - The Netherlands

Explorer 200 Series family of High speed USB 2 protocol Analysers

The Ellisys Explorer 200 analysers require connection to an analysis PC via a USB2 connection and that analysis PC runs the user interface software as well as storing and displaying the USB transactions being measured. The analyser is powered from the analysis USB link.

The Explorer unit then intercepts a USB link under test without interfering with the signal.

The analysis PC then runs the USB Data Visualiser is a common user interface for the Explorer. This user interface minimises clutter but allows detail down to the bit level to be displayed when required.

The Explorer provides USB bus analysis at a budget price. Its user interface minimises clutter but allows detail down to the bit level to be displayed when required.

Able to monitor the fastest USB 2 signals at 480Mbits/sec the Explorer 200s are available as..................

200 Basic

Low speed (1.5 Mbit/s), full speed (12 Mbit/s) High speed (480Mbits/sec) and mixed capture
Automatic detection of the speed of the Link Under Test
An External trigger is included
A 32Mbyte FIFO memory and a fast clock support the USB 2 maximum data rate under most circumstances
Split transactions are supported
Non-intrusive analysis of bus data and states
It is USB bus-powered
It has a small form factor 150 * 120 mm, weight 750 grams
The USB Data Visualiser is the user interface for the Explorer. This user interface minimises clutter but allows detail down to the bit level to be displayed when required.
The system hardware is upgradeable to the Explorer 200 Std or Pro

200 Standard

As for the Basic plus these additional features.....

Real time statistical display and traffic analysis identifying individual devices during capture
Support for On-The-Go Host and Session protocols ( On-The-Go is the standard that defines how USB devices may communicate in the absence of a controlling PC )
Hub class decodes

200 Pro

As for the Standard plus these additional features.....

Hardware Trigger option
USB Class Interpreter option.
Software Development Kit for those who wish to create their own automated USB data reporting

Explorer 260 High speed USB 2 Protocol Analyser

Able to monitor the fastest USB 2 signals at 480Mbits/sec the Explorer 260 provide all the features of the 200 Pro but in addition....

1Gbyte FIFO for long high speed data capture problems
Support via an optional probe for Interchip at all voltages

Explorer 260 High speed USB 2 Protocol Generator

The 260 Protocol Generator uses the same hardware with a different Firmware load to create USB traffic in order to...

Emulate either a USB Host or Device
Inject Error messages
Generate sequences of messages with exact delays
Triggering on events/external stimuli can be used within the message sequences
Using a scripting language complex test scenarios can be created
It can import traffic from an Analyser for exact reproduction of fault situations
An optional Compliance Test Suite will test devices against Chapter 9 of the spec as well as against the HID, Hub and Mass storage class specifications

Explorer DEX Compliance Test Suite

The Ellisys USB Device Examiner (DEX) is a stand-alone USB device compliance test application that operates on the USB Explorer 260 hardware. DEX is provided with the Generator, or can be added as an option to the Analyzer. DEX provides a comprehensive set of robust compliance tests covering Chapter 9 of the USB Specification (Device Framework). Test results are pass/fail, annotated with descriptive detail, and are summarised in a convenient HTML-formatted summary report upon completion of testing. Each test can optionally be captured with an EX260 Analyzer, providing quick and in-depth analysis of test results. The summary report includes instant links to analyzer captures for each test. In addition to the Chapter 9 coverage for any USB device, DEX also provides class-specific testing of several device classes, including mass storage devices, HID devices, and hub class (Chapter 11). The mass storage device class test suite includes read and write bandwidth stress tests.

For the prices of Explorer 200s visit our Web Shop

For the prices of Explorer 200s visit our Web Shop

USB Data Visualiser

The USB Data Visualiser is the user interface for the Explorer device. To use one of the analysers the operator starts the data collection process and then when enough data has been collected the operator stops collection. During collection the operator sees a count of the number of transactions, data volume and the average bus load. The Pro and 260 versions also include more detailed device specific Traffic analysis. At any time during collection the user can insert comments so that when the data is reviewed it is easy to identify what operations/actions were taking place. Once the data has been collected it may be displayed and saved for later viewing. The Data Visualiser may be feely distributed to other interested parties so that engineers can view the files saved without needing to be connected to an analyser.

When examining data collected the Visualiser provides may useful features. The user can :-

Filter or color code transactions by a number of criteria - device, endpoint etc.

The screen shot below shows enumerations of two peripherals taking place at the same time. A hub is shown in blue and a mouse in red

Details of the type of transactions and transfers are shown in a second window

Decoded and detailed display of standard requests and descriptors are given

The Display references the USB Specification
click on picture for large image

Data may be displayed in a number of different formats

Detection of USB bus states and low level protocols such as power, IDLE, SE0, SOF and NAK

Hub class requests are fully decoded with text descriptions of the data.

Each transaction is timed with 21nsec resolution

Data collected to disk and reviewed with extensive filter and search options

Once data has been collected it can be filtered and saved as a file which can then be viewed by other engineers using the USB Data Visualiser software which may be feely distributed.

Test sessions can be shared with other engineers using the demo as a file viewer.

Text and XTML output formats allow the data be shared with other programs or for creating C header files.

It runs under Windows 2000 or XP.

See below to get your copy including example bus transactions

USB Class Interpreter

Higher level protocols have been defined for a number of common classes of device and by conforming to these protocols a product can operate within Windows using standard drivers.

The USB Class Interpreter included in the Explorer 200 Pro and 260 will recognise class based transactions and will decode and display all the standard fields within the messages associated with these standard Classes. This greatly simplifies the understanding of what is going on as, when required, it hides the detail of the individual USB transactions (see individual classes for details and examples).

	Class	Support
	Audio	Supported
	Mass Storage	Supported
	Communication	Supported
	Human Interface Device	Supported
	Still Image	Supported
	Printer	Supported
	Bluetooth HCI	Supported
	USB Wireless Adapter	Supported
	Video	Supported
	Hub	Supported
	Wireless Controller	Supported
	Smart Card	Supported
	Test & Measurement	Supported
	Media Transfer	Supported

Users can even create a DLL that will define their own custom protocols

Once data has been collected by an analyser with the Class Interpreter option enabled it may be displayed by any USB Data Visualiser so those just examining data do not need to purchase a separate license.

Real Time Trigger

Available as a firmware upgrade for the Explorer 200 (and included in the Explorer 200 Pro and 260) the hardware triggering can detect numerous conditions occurring on the USB bus, electrical conditions, errors conditions, different types of USB packets and their source/destination/data as well as external triggering conditions. Powerful and flexible event counters are available. They can act on external or bus events as well as event sequences and the counters can be reset by an event occurrence.

Learn USB with the Ellisys USB Data Visualiser

The Data Visualiser software can run without a unit present to allow users to share and review displays of captured data. The software package on installation also includes a number of files with captures of interactions between a PC and standard devices. It therefore makes an ideal teaching tool to show and help comprehend the details of the USB and Class protocols.

contact www.Ellisys.com/products/ for a copy