ULPI Interface Specification Publicly Available for Standalone Hi-Speed USB Transceivers

-The ULPI Working Group today announced the first public availability of the UTMI+ low-pin interface (ULPI) industry specification for Hi-Speed Universal Serial Bus (USB) and USB On-the-Go (OTG) transceiver chips. This specification enables designers of application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), systems-on-chip (SoCs) and flash-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) to incorporate an industry-standard interface to connect off-the-shelf Hi-Speed USB transceivers into their designs. This saves design development time, simplifies verification and production testing, and helps to ensure interoperability between embedded USB core logic and Hi-Speed USB transceivers.

The ULPI Working Group is made up of USB industry leaders, including Conexant, Mentor Graphics, Philips, SMSC and TransDimension Inc. The ULPI specification is royalty-free and the final version (revision 1.1) of the ULPI specification can be accessed on www.ulpi.org.

"More than 85 companies worldwide have adopted the ULPI specification, and we expect publication of the specification to greatly increase the adoption rate," said Batuhan Okur, chairman of the ULPI Working Group. "With ULPI, the standalone PHY pin count has been dramatically reduced from as many as 100 pins down to approximately 30 pins, greatly simplifying the design process and manufacturing requirements for Hi-Speed USB connectivity, which is a key feature on virtually every digital device, including computers, MP3 players and digital cameras of every variety."

Until today, the ULPI specification has only been made available to third-party companies that signed the ULPI Adopters Agreement. With the public release of the ULPI specification, engineers are now able to obtain and review the ULPI specification without any restrictions. The companies that subsequently utilize the ULPI interface in their ASICs, SoCs or FPGAs will have the option to sign the Adopters Agreement to obtain the royalty-free ULPI license.

About Royal Philips Electronics

Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands (NYSE:PHG) (AEX:PHI) is one of the world's biggest electronics companies and Europe's largest, with sales of $37.66 billion (EUR 30.3 billion) in 2004. With activities in the three interlocking domains of healthcare, lifestyle and technology and 159,700 employees in more than 60 countries, it has market leadership positions in medical diagnostic imaging and patient monitoring, color television sets, electric shavers, lighting and silicon system solutions. News from Philips is located at www.semiconductors.philips.com.