USB 3382, PCI Express to USB 3.0 Peripheral Controller

© PLX Technology, www.plxtech.com

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6/22/2012, Version 1.2

Migrate PCI Express Endpoints to a USB 3.0

Product

The USB 3382 is designed to easily convert existing PCI

Express endpoints/adapter cards to a standalone USB 3.0

product.

Figure 2: Creating a multi-function USB 3.0 device with

two PCI Express based wireless radios and the USB

3382

Instead of a CPU configuring the PCI Express endpoint,

the USB 3382 can itself act as the PCI Express Root

Complex, with configuration information coming from its

internal 8051 CPU or from the USB host. Auto-

Enumeration Technology allows a standard USB host to

detect this new USB device even if no firmware has been

run. This means that firmware can actually be downloaded

to the USB device after initial boot-up.

The USB 3382 includes PCI Express clock and other

standard signals to compensate for features usually found

in a typical PCI Express Root Complex environment. The

USB 3382 supports two pairs of buffered, 100 MHz HCSL

output clocks, one pair for each downstream port when

configured in Adapter mode with one downstream port or

in Root Complex mode (one or two downstream ports).

Each clock output pair can be disabled by software or

serial EEPROM when not in use, for additional power

savings. This feature greatly reduces system BOM cost by

eliminating the need for extra clock buffers on the PCB.

Shared memory in the USB 3382 functions as main

memory for holding descriptors or other control data. The

integrated 8051 CPU can also be used to configure the

device to resemble a standard USB class device (like a

communications or video device) even if there is no local

intelligence on the peripheral.

Add a USB 3.0 Client Port to PCI Express-

Based Systems

The USB 3382 can also be used to easily add a USB 3.0

client port to any PCI Express based embedded system.

Figure 3: Combine the two PCI Express ports of the

USB 3382 into one x2 PCI Express Gen 1 connection

to maximize 5Gbps bandwidth

Development Tools

PLX offers hardware and software tools to enable rapid

customer design activity. These tools consist of a hardware

module (USB 3382 RDK), hardware documentation

(available at www.plxtech.com), and a Software

Development Kit.

Both USB host and peripheral-side software is included

with the USB 3382 RDK. The host-side software consists

of USB drivers and test applications. The peripheral-side

firmware is used to configure the USB 3382 to resemble a

standard USB class device (like a printer or mass storage

device) for which no USB host drivers will need to be

written. For custom applications, firmware APIs are

provided to abstract the USB transactions to reads and

writes. While this software is available for various

operating systems, it is written in standard C with

portability in mind.

Product Ordering Information

Part Number

Description

USB3382-AB50NI G

Two x1-port PCI Express Gen 2.0 to USB 3.0

SuperSpeed Peripheral Controller (10x10mm

USB3382-AB-2U RDK

USB3382 Rapid Development Kit + CM107

(one x2 upstream port)

USB3382-AB-1U1D RDK

USB3382 Rapid Development Kit + CM160

(one x1 upstream, one x1 downstream)

USB3382-AB-1D RDK

USB3382 Rapid Development Kit + CM110

(two x1 downstream ports, Root Complex

Mode)

USB3382-AB-2D RDK

USB3382 Rapid Development Kit + CM108

(one x2 downstream port, Root Complex Mode)

Visit www.plxtech.com for more information.