This Windows-based USB to Multi-Protocol Converter provides multiple communications capabilities supporting I2C & MDIO. The USB-MPC product makes it easy to work with and develop with these interfaces. USB-MPC allows users the option to program with Visual C/C++ or other programming environments that support DLLs. USB-MPC interfaces to the standard USB (V1.1 or V2.0) Port on any PC and allows bi-directional communications. The USB-MPC software operates on Windows 2000 or XP; comes with support for MDIO, an IEEE serial communication protocol; Device Descriptor Files (DDF), ASCII files allowing the user to add support for new devices, either I²C or MDIO; and a Sequencer, which reads ASCII files allowing the user to setup multiple read/write instructions to be executed in any defined sequence. Using the Main Program Window the user selects an I²C or MDIO peripheral. Once a device is selected, a Device Dialog Window is used to communicate directly to the selected device.

The USB-MPC supports programming of many I²C EEPROMs and also now supports low voltage I²C functioning with target supplied voltage down to 1.8 volts. USB-MPC-KIT supports the MDIO 22 and 45 standards in addition to I²C. MDIO 22 and 45 are also known as 802.3 Clause 22 and 802.3ae Clause 45, respectively.

Support for additional I²C Devices can easily be added with Device Descriptor Files (DDF). Complete documentation on the contents of a DDF file, how to create a DDF file, and example DDF files are provided by FDI and can easily be edited by the user.

The USB-MPC-KIT has a useful feature called the Sequencer. This Sequencer gives the user the ability to perform sequences of read and write commands, in I²C and MDIO modes. Read commands can be either displayed to the screen or logged to a ".log" file. It even supports loops. These sequences are stored in an ASCII text file, called a Sequence Descriptor File, with the ".SDF" extension and can easily be edited by the user.

The USB-MPC-KIT comes complete with a USB-MPC unit, MDIO Cable, USB Cable and an 18" cable to allow direct connection to the user's application or any of the standard NXP I²C demo boards.