March 31, 2009           

StackableUSB™: The "Greener" Connection

La Cañada, California... StackableUSB provides several "greener" connections for designers who take a board stacking approach to their embedded systems. With its blending of USB, I2C, and SPI, StackableUSB provides the most appropriate, as well as the most energy conscious mix of serial signals in industrial control today. Typically, throughput requirements in control applications do not need the higher bandwidth serial buses and their requirement for additional support chips on I/O boards. So unlike the faster PC-centric buses including PCIe, StackableUSB is simpler and consumes less power. In fact, it consumes such low amounts of power that it is possible to build battery-powered USB, I2C, and SPI stacks. Additionally, StackableUSB supports the power management features common to all USB devices, allowing boards to be placed in a low-power mode to conserve power when not being used.

"When designing an embedded system, the temptation is 'more is better,' but the consequence is often single board computers ill-matched to the application, resulting in higher power usages and larger sizes than necessary. Multiply these excesses over hundreds of systems, in materials and power, and the impact on the environment begins to mount. The exciting news is each of us is in a position to stop this excess now," comments Susan Wooley, Chairman of the Board of Inter Stackable Standards Group (the standards body governing StackableUSB).

For embedded applications, a combination of USB, I2C and SPI, as found in StackableUSB, provides the most appropriately matched I/O channel for control and measurement applications. Moreover, these serial channels enable the system designer to select the most suitable CPU for the application: Atom, Pentium, X86, ARM, or microcontroller, decreasing the likelihood of using more processor power than an application needs. StackableUSB’s combination of CPU flexibility, throughput capability, size reduction, and power management allows engineers to design sophisticated systems that consume less than 5 watts of energy, ultimately lessening the environmental burden.

In addition to its power efficiencies, StackableUSB takes advantage of the tremendous reductions in package sizes that have been taking place over the last few years as processor intelligence and I/O functionality are being put into a single chip. This has enabled board makers to reduce the size of virtually all I/O boards. The StackableUSB ¼-size 104™ Form Factor represents a 75% reduction in the form factor size over the previously "small" PC/104 form factor. This is mirrored by a comparable shrinkage in the size of the stacking connector, meaning only one-quarter of the raw materials are consumed when using StackableUSB. Not only does this favorably impact the OEM’s bottom dollar, it more importantly reduces the amount of electronic waste when systems reach their end of life decades later. Hence, StackableUSB is an elegant match of space and functionality resulting in a large reduction in the use of environmentally unfriendly materials and processes. StackableUSB makes it easier for OEMs to satisfy the new "green" standard with cost-effective, easy-to-implement, energy-efficient embedded designs.

About StackableUSB:
StackableUSB ruggedizes USB, I2C, and SPI into compact form factors enabling the technology to move into harsh environments such as industrial control systems, mobile, hand-held, military, medical, and remote communications applications. Visit http://www.StackableUSB.org for more information on StackableUSB and its ability to increase throughput as technology advances.