USB Mass Storage. Designing and Programming. Devices and Embedded Hosts

This developer's guide for designers and programmers of mass-storage devices that use the Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface provides developers with information on how to choose storage media, interface the media to a microcontroller or other CPU, and write device firmware to access the media and perform USB communications. Comparisons of popular storage-media options to help users choose a media type for a project are included, and the types described cover hard drives and flash-memory cards such as the MultiMediaCard (MMC), Secure Digital (SD) card, and CompactFlash card.

Tips on developing an embedded host that can access USB mass-storage devices are also covered.

A mass-storage device can provide access to data for just about any purpose. Every time you load an application or save a file on a PC, you're using a mass-storage device. A computer's hard drive is a mass-storage device, as are flash, CD, and DVD drives. Devices with dedicated functions -data loggers, robots, and other embedded systems- can use mass storage as well. Every mass-storage device contains a microcontroller, microprocessor, or other intelligent hardware that knows how to access the contents of the storage media.