Renesas Electronics America announces Stream API license program

USA: Renesas Electronics America, a premier provider of advanced semiconductor solutions, announced the launch of the Renesas’ stream Application Programming Interface (API) license program for implementation externally.

In December 2009, Renesas developed a driver that utilizes the USB Attached SCSI Protocol (UASP) defined by the USB Implementer’s Forum (USB-IF) and further enhances the data transfer rate with external mass-storage devices. This overcomes the performance boundaries of the legacy Bulk Only Transfer (BOT) protocol defined in the USB 2.0 standard.

In August 2011, Renesas launched the µPD720230 USB 3.0-to-SATA3 bridge SoC. The Renesas USB 3.0 host controllers, the µPD720230 SoC and the Renesas UASP driver, form the world's first complete solution that fully commercializes the UASP technology in the market, offering end users unprecedented transfer speed to the external storage.

Renesas has now extended the UASP technology implementation to other companies in order to facilitate a broader adoption of the technology. Based on a cooperative agreement, key chipset manufacturer AMD has implemented the Renesas proprietary API for the UASP driver to “stream” the data transfer commands to the host driver.

This “Stream” API enables compatibility between Renesas’ UASP driver and non-Renesas host hardware. Today, Renesas’ UASP driver runs not only on the Renesas µPD720200 USB 3.0 host controller and its follow-on products (µPD720200A, µPD720201 and µPD720202), but also operates on AMD’s A88X, A85X, A76M, A75, A70M, and A68M chipsets.

As part of its continuous promotion of the UASP technology, Renesas has made the proprietary Stream API available to other UASP driver implementers, including MCCI Corp.

“Our mission is to offer our customers as wide a portfolio of USB connectivity solutions as possible,” said Terry Moore, CEO, MCCI. “By partnering with Renesas, we are able to offer developers access to high-performance USB storage platforms they require.”

Through the Renesas Stream API licensing program (in the form of a software library/wrapper), MCCI has integrated the software wrapper into their UASP driver. MCCI’s UASP driver is now compatible with hardware using host driver software that supports Renesas’ proprietary Stream API, achieving the high data transfer performance of UASP, and maintaining the solid interoperability that Renesas has built into its USB complete software solution. At the same time, the Renesas solution will be offered to more end users.