PC Technology Resources

Industry Organizations, Standards, Formats

    by Douglas Dixon

• PC Technology
• Standards Organizations
• PC Storage Formats
• PC Interface / Communications Formats
• PC Networking Formats
• RFID

See also:

Digital Video Editing References  (FireWire / DV)  
DVD Authoring References  (Optical formats)
Web Streaming Media Resources  (Streaming formats)
Wireless / Handheld / PDA Media Resources  (Wireless formats)

PC Technology References

• PC Webopedia
      webopedia.internet.com
• Microsoft Windows Vista
      www.microsoft.com/Windowsvista
• Microsoft - Windows XP
      www.microsoft.com/windowsxp
• Microsoft - DirectX
      www.microsoft.com/directx
• Adam Perer's DirectX eXperience
      www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Way/3390/index.html
• OpenGL.org
      www.opengl.org

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Standards Organizations

• National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
      www.nist.gov
• International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
      www.iso.org
• International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)
      www.iec.ch
• International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
      www.itu.int
• European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA)
      www.ecma-international.org

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PC Storage Formats

• International Recording Media Association (IRMA)
      www.recordingmedia.org
• Media-Tech Association
      www.media-tech.net

SDHC Cards -- SD 2.0 High Capacity

• SD Card Assoc. specification 2.0 for SDHC - SD High-Capacity
• 4 to 32 GB, 9 MB/sec
• Larger capacity: FAT 12/16 to FAT 32 - 4, 8 GB
• Higher data speed: Speed Class 2, 4 6 (MB/sec)
• Not backwards compatible with legacy SD devices -- only 2 GB or less
• www.sdcard.org/sdhc/index.html
• www.sandisk.com/sdhc/SDHC.pdf
• U3 - Flash drives
      www.u3.com
• Optical Storage Technology Association (OSTA)
      www.osta.org
• Mount Rainier - CD and DVD background formatting and defect management
      www.mt-rainier.org  
• HighMAT -- digital music and photo playback on CD
      www.highmat.com (-> windowsmedia)
      www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/Consumerelectronics/highmat.aspx
• RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) References
      en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redundant_array_of_independent_disks
  • RAID 0 stripes data across multiple discs for better performance
  • RAID 1 mirrors the data for redundancy
  • RAID 5 combines both with striping plus distributed parity information
• High Definition Compatible Digital (HDCD) Audio
      www.hdcd.com

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PC Interface / Communications Formats

• See Wireless Media Resources for more on wireless connectivity

PC External Interfaces

External Data Interface	Mbps	MBps
USB	12 Mbps	1.5
USB 2.0 (High Speed)	480 Mbps	60
USB 3.0 (SuperSpeed)	5 Gbps	640
1394 (Firewire)	400 Mbps	50
1394b	800 Mbps	100
eSATA 1.5 Gb/s	1200 Mbps	150
eSATA 3 Gb/s	2400 Mbps	300
Express Card	2.5 Gbps	320
Thunderbolt	2 x 10 Gbps	2 x 1280

• USB Implementers Forum
  • www.usb.org
• 1394 Trade Association (FireWire)
  • www.1394ta.com
• Apple - Thunderbolt (PCI Express & DisplayPort)
  • www.apple.com/thunderbolt
• Intel - Thunderbolt
  • www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/io/thunderbolt

• PC Webopedia
      webopedia.internet.com/Hardware/Ports_and_Interfaces
• Intel - Processors, Hyper-Threading
      www.intel.com/products/processor
      www.intel.com/technology/hyperthread
• Memory Implementers Forum (Dell, HP and Intel) -- DDR2 SDRAM
      www.memforum.org
  • Intel     www.intel.com/technology/memory    
  • Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDR2_SDRAM
• DDR2 SDRAM (Double Data Rate Two Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory)
  • Redoubles data rate of DDR-SDRAM
  • faster throughput, lower power usage, future growth in clock speeds
  • www.memforum.org

PCI - Peripheral Component Interconnect / PCI Express (PCI-e)

           
        PCI-SIG - PCI Express - PCI-X 2.0

• PCI Express bidirectional, and faster then the older PCI and AGP interfaces
• guarantees each device dedicated bandwidth through the system controller
• slots are defined by their bandwidth, or number of data lanes - 1, 4, 8, 16 lanes
• one card can support 1 to 32 lanes at 250 MB/sec each, up to 8 GB/sec
• PCI Express x1 about twice as fast as PCI
• 4-lane slot can transfer data at up to 1 GBps 
• PCI Express x8 is around the speed of the fastest AGP
      up to 2 GBps - almost 2X 133MHz PCI-X slot at max throughput just over 1 GBps
• previous PCI Extended, PCI-X

PCI-SIG - PCI Special Interest Group    www.pcisig.com
Apple             www.apple.com/powermac/pciexpress.html    
Intel               www.intel.com/technology/pciexpress/devnet    
Wikipedia     en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI-Express

SATA -- Serial ATA / eSATA -- External SATA

• Designed to replace the older ATA and SCSI formats, offering higher performance with ease of connection
• ATA drives low cost, high capacity
• Internal data rates reaching up to 75 MB/sec, USB and 1394 interface rates are bottleneck
• Internal: SATA 1.5 Gb/sec (150 MB/sec) or SATA 3 Gb/sec (300 MB/sec)
• External: eSATA with more robust cables and connections (multiple insertion , shielded)
      Electrical Static Discharge (ESD) , Electro Magnetic Interference

Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO)    www.sata-io.org
    www.serialata.org
Wikipedia     en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ATA

Infrared Data Association
    www.irda.org

USB Implementers Forum, Inc. (USB-IF)
    www.usb.org

1394 Trade Association (FireWire)
    www.1394ta.com

RFID

RFID Technical Institute Inc. (RTI)
    www.rfidtech.com

International RFID Business Association (RFIDba)
    www.rfidbusiness.org

EPCglobal US
    www.epcglobalus.org

GS1 US Inc. -- was Uniform Code Council Inc.
    www.gs1us.org

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