Bishop and Associates, Inc. has just released a research report providing a
concise description of the major new connector Initiatives and their impact on
technology driving the connector industry. The objective of this report is
to create a resource for the understanding of the new technologies, their
purpose and uniqueness, and to provide a basis for determining their viability
in an ever-changing world of electronic systems.
This report supplies
essential information needed to understand each technology and to access
opportunities around each technology. Many of these technologies were
originally developed for the computer industry, but they also impact both the
consumer and telecom market. The long awaited convergence has begun and
developments in one part of the marketplace can permeate others.
In addition,
the report provides the sales volume for each connector along with the rationale
behind its importance to the industry. The report is organized by individual
technology and provides both an executive summary of each technology and a more
in depth analysis of each.
The report also addresses new realities in the
development of connector technologies, including the role that others outside
the connector industry have in dictating new connector designs.
Technologies included in this report:
The connector industry has changed. The time when OEMs designed unique
systems and selected peculiar hardware has almost come to an end. Custom
connectors were a part of this uniqueness. Companies in response to requirements
from the OEMs designed connectors from scratch. Today, the system design effort
takes place at the integrated semiconductor designers workstations, creating
standardized building blocks which OEMs will connect together to build their
almost identical hardware systems: systems that will utilize standard
interconnects.
The reality is that the role of the connector is significantly
changed from what it was just a few short years ago. The connector was mainly a
mechanical device that was needed to provide a separable interface. The
requirement for a new connector was most often driven by a form factor change,
and electrical performance was almost a secondary consideration. With the
increase in the speed of todayfs technology, that is no longer the case. The
electrical performance of the connector is primary in the design of a connector
and the design process reflects that for current connectors.
No longer is a
connector designed and then tested for electrical performance. Design
begins with electrical modeling of the connector to ensure that the performance
of the connector will not negatively affect the performance of the circuitry
into which it will be inserted. The evaluation of the electrical
performance of a connector is the responsibility of the Signal Integrity (SI)
engineer whose importance to the connector industry has soared in recent years.
Once a minor responsibility, SI is now a separate department at the larger
connector manufacturers and is vital to the design process.
USB Becoming The Universal Serial Bus
| The USB connector is an example of one of the technologies covered in
this report. With PC systems numbering around 150 million a year, the
decision by Intel to natively support 6 to 8 USB 2.0 ports in its latest
chipsets immediately creates a market for over 1 billion connectors a year
for just the computer side of the interface. The viability of USB
increased when the data rate of the connector went from 12 Mbits per
second to 480 Mbits per second. Meanwhile IEEE 1394, another serial
technology, has increased its speed to 800 Mbits per second with the
release of the IEEE-1394b specification. Its impact is explored as
well as that of the proposed addition of a 1394 wireless specification and
the possible adoption of a "wireless USB" as the UWB standard. |
 |
Worldwide USB Connector Market
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