Exar Announced Full-Speed USB UART

Exar Corporation announced the industry’s fastest Full-Speed USB UART with up to 12Mbps serial data rate. The series is composed of three devices which is compliant to the USB 2.0 specification. The XR21V1410/V1412/V1414 have differentiated features which include the smallest packaging options, optimized software drivers, and support large FIFO sizes delivering flexible and proven design options to system architects.

"The series of devices offer the lowest Bill of Materials (BOM) costs, minimal system overhead and are designed in space saving packages that are less than half the size of competitive solutions," said Levent Ozcolak, vice president, Interface Product Line. "With hardware and software tool kits readily available, system architects can quickly design in these devices to meet rapidly changing time-to-market requirements."

According to leading market research firm InStat, the USB interface is the most successful interface ever with over three billion devices shipped in 2008 alone. It has been broadly adopted across consumer electronics, communications and automotive devices.

The XR21V1410/V1412/V1414 series targets a large cross-section of embedded and consumer applications. Examples of embedded applications are gaming systems, ATM machines, industrial automation systems amongst others. For consumer applications, the series is ideal for smart phones, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), GPS systems, DVD players/recorders and gaming systems and other portable applications.

"Adding enhanced capabilities to our market-leading UART portfolio of 8-bit, PCI, I2C/SPI, VLIO, and wireless UARTs, this new series of USB compliant solutions immediately opens new opportunities to support our customers’ next generation applications," said Rakesh Bhatia, senior manager, strategic marketing, Interface Products Line. "In addition, when added to Exar’s serial transceiver and power management products we can offer a complete and optimized solution for serial communications designs."

Series Details
The XR21V1410, XR21V1412, and XR21V1414 have a USB slave interface, which is compliant with Full-Speed USB 2.0 specification. All devices in the series support USB suspend, resume and remote wakeup operations. All the devices share a common set of features including large FIFO sizes of 128-byte TX and 384-byte RX that optimize overall data throughput, automatic hardware (RTS/CTS or DTR/DSR) flow control, automatic software (Xon/Xoff) flow control, and multi-drop mode with auto half-duplex transceiver control. In addition, none of the devices require an external crystal/oscillator which saves on board real estate.

These devices also have Sleep and PowerSave modes to minimize power consumption. Software drivers are available for Windows 2000, XP, Vista, and CE, as well as Mac and Linux. These devices operate from a single 2.97 to 3.63 volt power supply with the core operating at 1.2V to minimize overall power consumption.

Interface Products
Exar has one of the broadest portfolios of high-performance interface solutions including UARTs, serial transceivers – RS-232, RS-485, and multi-protocol – the industry-first wireless UART chipset solution, as well as, integrated UART/transceiver combinations. For chip-to-chip or system-to-system connections, Exar’s single and multi-channel interface ICs provides immediate competitive advantages to designers: low power, reduction in board space requirements, increased bandwidth capacity, and enhanced product features. Interface devices are found practically everywhere including point-of-sale (POS) terminals, digital televisions, industrial automation equipment, handheld devices, and networking environments.

Tools and Support
Evaluation boards, reference designs, and software drivers are available. With the availability of these tools and Exar’s application support line: uarttechsupport@exar.com, UART customers can accelerate implementation by eliminating driver development, testing and diagnostic procedures.

Prices, Packages, Availability and Additional Information

• Samples of the XR21V1410 are available now in a 16-pin QFN at 2.97V-3.63V operation over the industrial temperature range. In quantities the XR21V1410 is priced at
  1k$1.80.
• Samples of the XR21V1412 are available now in a 32-pin QFN at 2.97V-3.63V operation over the industrial temperature range. In 1k quantities the XR21V1412 is priced at $3.10.
• Samples of the XR21V1414 are available now in a 48-pin TQFP at 2.97V-3.63V operation over the industrial temperature range. In 1k quantities the XR21V1414 is priced at $5.80.