CE Pro April 2024 - 18

Networking+Home Control
HDMI CORNER by DPL Labs
Can One Common Digital
Interface Be in Our Future?
THERE WAS A TIME that
the idea of one common
interface reached maturity
way back in the late '80s,
and early '90s and that
was Apple's outstanding
serial interface IEEE 1394
(FireWire). It was referred
to as the be-all, end-all for
multiple types of digital
connectivity.
The 1394 did everything
- file transfers to AV production,
home automation,
and factory automation. It
was considered a miracle at
the time and was brought
to center stage when the
analog-to-digital transition
took place for HDTV. It was
easy to build and offered
a far greener (e-waste)
environment with the hope
of reducing dozens of connecting
devices to just one.
However, after more than
two years and getting all
stakeholders up to speed
it was canned literally at
the last moment, deferring
consumer HDTV's common
interface to HDMI. We
can say HDMI has worked
diligently to expand its
offerings under revisions
over the years with today's
latest bandwidth for 8K
and 48Gbps impressive.
Now, 20+ years later we
are approaching yet another
pivotal point in serial
communication and that
is with USB. The history of
18 | CE Pro April 2024
USB is somewhat lengthy
so to get to the focus of
the article we'll jump to the
present day.
USB has matured over
the years and with that
came higher speeds, a huge
focus on power delivery
(PD), and applications.
With the most recent
USB-Type C cable, things
Voltage Supply (AVS). This
is huge and can provide all
kinds of options for home
integration even though
the main objective of the
PD was to charge batteries
at higher power levels
primarily for cell phones,
laptops, and other powerhungry
devices. When you
add all the other types of
" Now, 20+ years later we are
approaching yet another pivotal
point in serial communication
and that is with USB. "
really accelerated making it
more robust in throughput
and providing power that
can now extend to as much
as 240 Watts Extended
Power Range (ERP). Much
of this is supported by an
internal feature called E
Markers giving the cable
some intelligence that
allows both source and sink
to configure device limits
automatically.
Under USB 3.0 and beyond,
these E Markers can
configure power levels by
knowing the gauge within
the cable and delivering
the voltage range as needed.
These can vary from 5
Volts DC to as much as 48
Volts DC controlled by a
feature called Adjustable
USB applications and features
including Alternate
Mode, it becomes obvious
how impactful this can
be. There may be a time
when peripherals could be
powered totally from the
interface itself.
Besides these great
advances, the one major
boon was Apple's decision
to move the iPhone out
from their very successful
lightning connector
to USB-Type C. Now the
overall popularity of USBType
C has skyrocketed
and could become the
main influence on whether
there could be a future
common serial interface
for everything.
There are still some hurdles
to get over and one is
bandwidth. USB has done
pretty well, starting at a
mere 1.5 megabits (Mbps)
to potentially Thunderbolt
@80Gbps. Distance will
be an issue just like it has
been with other throughput
data requirements similar
to HDMI. Technological
improvements allowed for
the semiconductor industry
to provide hardware to
extend these data rates
throughout time, which
will continue primarily due
to demand.
Case in point: Three
years ago we had a project
case study with another
type of interface in the datacenter
market where data
rates are off the charts.
The study entailed a new
semiconductor product
that claimed to increase
transmission distances for a
400Gbps signal. It worked
successfully, taking the PCB
trace length from 1 to 4
inches - quite an accomplishment!
Only
time will tell, but as
for DPL Labs the demand
for USB High-Speed testing
keeps increasing, and
we'll continue testing these
USB types of cables.
JEFF BOCCACCIO,
president of DPL Labs, can
be reached at info@dpllabs.
com, or visit dpllabs.com.
cepro.com
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CE Pro April 2024

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