Bridge chip creates ultra small portable drive

The latest reference design from Oxford Semiconductor creates a combined IEEE 1394 (FireWire) and USB 2.0 compatible portable hard disk drive measuring just 116mm x 54mm x 10mm.

Supporting a 1.8 inch,20Gb hard disk, the reference design uses the OXUF922 programmable bridge chip to provide 400Mbps IEEE 1394, 480Mbps USB 2.0 and 80MBps IDE interfaces. The device's on-chip ARM7 processor makes it the core of many highly differentiated OEM storage products.

This compact drive solution suits portable backup and bootable drive applications and used as a working data drive, it presents a highly portable alternative to carrying a laptop for home office working and international travel between offices.