Industry Expert Blogs

The growing adoption of SuperSpeed USB (USB 3.0) is enabling some exciting new product designs, but it's also causing a big functional verification challenge. A recently archived Cadence webinar provides an overview of the USB 3.0 protocol, notes IC verification requirements and challenges, and shows how verification IP (VIP) can help.

Huz Dalal, product marketing manager at Cadence, described USB as the "most versatile protocol" and noted that it has continuously evolved since its introduction in the mid-1990s. While SuperSpeed USB supports speeds up to 5 Gbps today, a 10 Gbps SuperSpeed specification is now under development. A USB Power Delivery specification allows more flexible power delivery. And USB SuperSpeed Inter-Chip (SSIC) delivers a scalable chip-to-chip interconnect solution for SuperSpeed USB devices.

Rishubh Garg, USB VIP R&D lead at Cadence, added more perspective. He noted that SuperSpeed USB provides up to a 10X performance increase over USB 2.0, and can use just 1/3 the power of USB 2.0. However, USB 3.0 has a layered architecture that "is very complex compared to USB 2.0 and is very challenging to verify," Garg said.

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