The new Vinculum USB host controller ICs handle the USB host interface and data transfer functions. Owing to the built-in 8-/32-bit MCU and embedded flash memory, Vinculum encapsulates the USB device classes as well. When interfacing to mass storage devices such as USB flash drives, Vinculum also transparently handles the FAT file structure communicating via UART, SPI, or parallel FIFO interfaces via an easy-to-implement command set. 

The initial product member of the family is the VNC1L device, which features two USB ports that can be individually configured by firmware as host or slave ports. The VNC1L’s key features include dual DMA controllers for hardware acceleration, 64-KB flash program memory, and 4-KB data SRAM. As for ports, the ICs offer two USB ports, UART, SPI and parallel FIFO interfaces, and PS2 legacy keyboard and mouse interfaces. Up to 28 GPIO pins are also available depending on the configuration. The device operates at 3.3 V with 5-V safe inputs. Power requirements are only 25 mA when running and 2 mA at standby.

The device is available in an LQFP-64 ROHS-compliant package and costs $5 in 10,000-piece quantities.

Future Technology Devices International
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