Cypress Semiconductor's new module can download a movie to a phone in a minute

Cypress Semiconductor has introduced a new module for its West Bridge peripheral controllers that offer the fastest available transfer of multimedia files from a PC to handheld device via the widely used Media Transfer Protocol (MTP). Cypress's Turbo-MTP solution enables users to side load a feature-length movie in less than a minute - 10x faster than competing MTP implementations.

The Turbo-MTP solution enhances the power of MTP. MTP is a USB-based protocol used by Rhapsody, Napster, Verizon V CAST and other online video and music services. MTP enables the transfer of metadata such as song titles, images, and Digital Rights Management (DRM) information. With MTP, a handheld retains access to storage even while plugged into a PC - users can still make a phone call or watch videos while connected, instead of facing a "PC Connect" frozen screen. MTP also removes any risks of file corruption when users unplug their handheld during a file transfer. Natively supported in Windows Media Player (WMP), MTP protocol enables direct, drag-and-drop synchronization between WMP and a handheld.

"MTP has greatly improved the user experience from competing protocols, but it slows down transfer speeds," said Alakesh Chetia, Vice President of the West Bridge Business Unit at Cypress. "Turbo-MTP dramatically accelerates sideloading for MTP handhelds, offloading the data stream from the main processor onto a high-performance, USB-optimized West Bridge controller. As a result, users gain the benefits of MTP without a transfer penalty."

Cypress will demonstrate the Turbo-MTP solution at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on February 16 to 19 in Hall 1, Booth 1H35. Recent benchmarks showed that a top-tier multimedia phone using Turbo-MTP transferred files 10 times faster than other MTP phones.

Enhanced by West Bridge solutions - including the Antioch and Astoria peripheral controllers - MTP represents a significant improvement over the legacy Mass Storage Class (MSC) protocol. Using MSC, users could not access any content on their handset when connected to a PC. MTP maintains simultaneous access to storage, so users can still fully use their phone or PMP while connected. Also, with MSC, users were required to use specific "Safe Removal" operations before unplugging the USB cable or have all stored files get corrupted. MTP is immune to this loss of data.

The West Bridge Antioch controller achieves superior data transfer performance by providing a direct path from high-speed USB 2.0 to handset storage devices such as Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC), MultiMedia Card (MMC), Hard Disk Drive (HDD) and NAND Flash. By fully offloading management of USB and storage from the main baseband processor, the controller saves critical processor resources and allows a mobile handset to maintain full functionality while simultaneously sideloading multimedia files, synchronizing PIM data, or even using the phone as a PC modem. The West Bridge Astoria controller adds to this performance with a configurable multimedia storage interface and flexible processor interface, easing connections to a broad range of embedded processors and mass storage devices. These features allow the Astoria controller to connect to any embedded processor or DSP, bringing MLC NAND support to new applications including portable media players (PMPs), wireless cards, dongles, portable navigation devices (PNDs), digital cameras, POS terminals and more.

Availability
West Bridge Antioch and Astoria peripheral controllers with the Turbo-MTP capability are currently in full production. The Turbo-MTP firmware module is supported in the West Bridge Antioch Development Kit and the West Bridge Astoria Development Kit. Contact your local sales representative for more information.

About the West Bridge Family
Devices in the new West Bridge family of peripheral controllers function as a companion chip to an embedded central processing unit (CPU) to free it from data-intensive operations. In the same way the North Bridge and South Bridge were introduced in the PC architecture to enable the main CPU to evolve independently from quickly changing memory and peripheral interfaces, embedded systems are evolving towards a similar architecture, where a West Bridge device manages the interfaces and offloads from the main CPU specific peripheral-to-peripheral traffic.

The West Bridge family is based on Cypress's Simultaneous Link to Independent Multimedia (SLIM) architecture, which manages multiple, dedicated paths between peripherals, memory and the processor to allow maximum data throughput. In addition to providing a path to interfaces not supported by the main processor, the SLIM architecture allow direct and independent data transfer from one interface to another, offloading the main CPU, and freeing up its resources for higher system performance. For more information, visit www.cypress.com/go/westbridge.