USB 2.0 and 1.1 devices have been around for a long time and will continue to sustain even in the presence of the new, faster and efficient 3.0 version. These two oldies, which I like to call legacy specification are so popular, that till 2008, 2 billion USB devices were sold every year, taking the total number to 6 billion devices (source Wikipedia); making USB the most successful computing interface of all time.

Computer hardware manufacturers are already gearing up to ship USB 3.0 devices and controllers in huge volumes. With 1 million PC sold each day in 2010, the PC market is booming and alarmingly spreading. This has set a perfect stage for USB 3.0 to become the mainstream of computing interfaces to replace USB 2.0.

But what about the 6 billion legacy devices and the older USB controllers. Would they connect to USB 3.0 devices?

The SuperSpeed USB specification has provisions for this backward compatibility. Also, USB 3.0 manufacturers cannot afford to not support the vast USB 2.0 user base. This means that USB 3.0 legacy compatibility will become critical.

Legacy compatibility testing with 6 billion devices is impossible, but we thought that practically it could be made simpler. We analyzed different USB use cases and identified five (5) different compatibility test nodes (highlighted in blue in the image).

1. The devices segmented into 9 functional buckets
2. The connectors / cables
3. Intermediate hubs
4. Controllers / add-on cards
5. Operating system drivers

Components in USB 3.0 usage

Combinations of these 5 testable areas would will yield compatibility test scenarios. But the scenario count will be pretty high, making it difficult to exercise. However, a careful and intelligent way of partitioning these test areas, can help achieve optimum number of test scenarios without loss of coverage.

Microsoft is making the news again, first with Windows 7 crossing 150 million license sales and very recently due to the leaked presentation slides from the Windows 8 OS Strategy. The content lists new features like face recognition, touch screens, Windows store etc, which will best suit the future market needs.

I am personally excited about the Windows Store idea, which will be similar to the immensely popular Apple AppStore. The leaked presentation has not been officially endorsed by Microsoft, but it absolutely makes sense for Microsoft to jump on the app store bandwagon. Moreover, although Windows 8 is slated to hit the market in 2012, Microsoft could very likely bring the store idea in Windows 7 itself.

The proposed store will certainly have all the goodies of an in-OS, in-context market place for buyers. And importantly it will help application and hardware manufacturers sell their products to a broader set of buyers; something which was not possible in the conventional and isolated sales cycles.

So, with this Windows Store success story firmly set in my mind, I thought about how Microsoft would qualify such 3rd party products for their store. They have a ready turf for this with their Windows Logo Programs. The programs are targeted towards hardware devices/systems and applications for client/server operating systems. Through the program, Microsoft ensures product reliability and compatibility with Windows operating systems. As logo certified products are trusted by Microsoft, they will quite naturally be the favorites to easily qualify for publishing on Windows Store.

Till now Windows Logo testing was considered as a “good to have”, but the Windows Store assumption could become a reality much sooner than 2012. Product manufacturers would need to aggressively think about getting logo certified and push it up in their priority list.

Read my earlier post, 6 hurdles to Windows Logo Certification, to see what hurdles managers face in their thought process and roadmap to certification.

We all test our products and have high quality standards. But is the end user aware of our standards? Does he trust our claim of delivering flawless products? I am sure that in majority cases, the answer is going to be a NO. Unfortunately, end users just don’t trust the manufacturer’s word on quality. However, there is one way to increase users’ confidence.. and that is through compliance testing.  Windows Logo Test is one such compliance program that is designed for ensuring strict compliance with Windows OS design and standards. From my personal observations, the buyer’s anxiety level is drastically reduced  when they see a Microsoft Logo artwork on the product. It gives them the confidence that the product will be of great quality, as Microsoft themselves have certified it.

So, Windows Logo testing is a critical stage in the life cycle of product development. However, on many products, such testing is considered as “optional” or “good to have”. Based on Harbinger Systems’ experience working with product vendors, we see that the Windows Logo Testing thought process goes through the following stages. Some vendors drop out midway through the process, while others do walk the entire distance and come out on the other side.

• Awareness - We start our list with the lack of awareness. Many product designers are unaware that such test programs exist. Even if they have heard about it, they are not sure what these tests do and what their results conclude.
• Cost Benefit – The next question that crops up is around the cost of certification. Obviously the program is not going to be free. But on the other hand, certification is an investment which when used to its full potential can help attain higher sales and better user reviews. This is because, after certification the product is robust and can sustain all critical user scenarios. Also important is that users trust Microsoft certification.
• Knowledge – After agreeing that there is significant ROI for the logo testing and willingness to give it a shot, after reaching this stage of the thought process, many still don’t know how to proceed. Microsoft provides elaborate information on Winqual site regarding the program, and it is a great resource to acquaint oneself with logo testing.
• Time - One of last reasons for not proceeding with Logo testing is the lack of time. Product cycles are so stringent that there is little room left for any kind of conformance testing. However, what the product companies should understand is that logo testing programs can be executed independently of their existing test cycles. If expertise bandwidth is an issue, then Microsoft permits the use of 3rd party test agencies for running these tests on behalf of the company.
• Infrastructure – So far we addressed some key hold-ups like awareness, cost and time. Another show stopper is the test infrastructure. The question we often get asked is, ‘Is it worth having an elaborate test setup costing thousands of dollars for a product portfolio that has very few products?’ Well, the answer is not straight forward, but an easy way out is to use a 3rd party test agency that has dedicated setups with the right mixture of architectures, hardware and OS versions to perform exhaustive testing. This can be done without spending huge amounts on infrastructure.
• Expertise - The final step is the expertise needed for such a conformance testing program. I wouldn’t say that executing and triaging such tests is a child’s play, but surely external help is available if the expertise cannot be cultivated in-house.

I am quite sure that many of you can visualize yourself at one of these stages when it comes to Windows Logo Testing. Hopefully, some of the pointers shared above will help you proceed to the next level.

Are you a product developer thinking about Logo Testing? Which stage of the above thought process do you find yourself in? Do let us know or contact us here if you have questions for us.

The SuperSpeed USB 3.0 specification has surely set the stage for USB to be an ideal channel for data transfer from SSD. However, the real picture will emerge as USB 3.0 gets absorbed into the main stream by year 2011 and the way it stands up to competitive technologies like SATA and PCI Express.

In this multi-part series of blog posts, I want to highlight the trends in Solid-State Drives or SSDs as storage devices and understand some of the challenges it faces. We at Harbinger Systems have been testing and developing Windows applications around storage systems for over four years. Based on our experience in working with some of the companies in the industry and interacting with storage industry experts in conferences and expos, it is clear that this space is in the midst of some very important changes. In this first post, we try to understand if Solid-State Drives or SSDs could be the future of storage. In my subsequent post, I will talk about the challenges SSD needs to overcome to attain supremacy.

My initial conclusion is based on the following observations:

Small yet big

SSDs are going against the well known saying, “the bigger the better”. The size of SSDs is decreasing by the day. This is quite evident from the fact that recently Intel and Micron Technology Inc launched a 25 nm NAND device.

Now, even as the physical size of the chip is getting smaller, its storage capacity is on the rise. Some even believe that we have now entered into the Terra Byte era and left behind Giga Byte in 2008. TB is now the new standard for measuring storage capacities.

Also SSD are manufactured in the form of a chip and not magnetic / plastic disks, so they are not restricted by the shape of the disk. This form factor flexibility is much more than just a cosmetic benefit as more and more consumer device manufacturers decide to upgrade the storage capacities of their devices. They can use SSD as SSD can be manufactured in any form to fit into the odd places of any device.

Little SSD crosses big boundaries

Past trends have shown that the storage domain serves three main business areas, 1) Enterprise/Personal, 2) Entertainment and 3) Portable.

So far, each of these areas is served by three separate storage media. Magnetic and network based storage is the most preferred option in enterprise and personal storage. Optical is very dominant in the entertainment industry, while SSD has been widely accepted on portable devices. At some point of time these technologies start to cross their boundaries and peep into the remaining two areas. Here are some possibilities I can visualize with SSD.

SSD in Entertainment – I begin to wonder whether it will be ever possible that a movie is released on a NAND flash instead of a Blu-Ray / DVD. It surely sounds very fascinating, but the hurdles for SSD entering this domain are high. The first one is the cost of production of NAND flash, which is much higher as compared to an optical disk. The second hurdle is the wide spread use of optical media players, many of which don’t have the capability of reading data off a flash drive. I can think of more barriers and similar path-breaking opportunities, but these two issues are so critical that it deters me from putting SSD in the entertainment business anytime in the near future.

SSD in Enterprise – Now this might be a more interesting area for SSD to step into. Gartner research predicts that Enterprise SSD sales could reach 5.3 million units by 2013. Here are just some reasons why this might happen:

• SSD’s small form factor may give it an edge over the existing bulky magnetic drives.
• Many enterprises are surging towards greener (energy efficient) work environments. SSD will score a point here over magnetic drives that consume more power because of inner moving parts. In addition, as SSD are solid in nature, they will tend to make less noise as compared to hard disk drives.
• Modern SSD architecture might have capabilities of outperforming magnetic disks in terms of data transfer speeds.

So far the news has been good for SSD, and it looks all set to enter the Enterprise space. But wait a minute! If it was so easy for SSD, then why is it not there already? In my next post, I will take a look some of the challenges SSD faces in the Enterprise space.

Some more good news for SSD

Consider some of the recent news headlines that are a cause for cheer for SSD:

• Microsoft Corporation has developed a new File System called exFAT or extended File Allocation Table which is targeted for better serving the flash based storage devices. This file system, which is a successor of the traditional FAT system, is shipped through service packs and newer operating systems like Windows 7.
• IEEE 1667 specification was formulated in 2007 for creating an authentication standard for USB flash and personal storage devices. If the flash devices are provisioned according to the specification, it can prevent data theft by adding a virtual authentication layer on these devices.
• There is a relentless battle that is waging between Intel-Micron, SanDisk-Toshiba and Samsung Electronics to attain supremacy in the SSD technology. This clearly bodes well for the technology.
• Modern day smart phones/OS (like Google Android and Apple iPhone) and tablet PC (like Apple iPad) look at SSD as their primary means of persistent storage.

Based on these, my conclusion thus far is that SSD can certainly be the future of storage. It has a lot of things going for it, but there are some critical challenges that it faces. Could these deter SSD from gaining supremacy? I will evaluate those challenges and opportunities in my next week’s post.