Abstract:
The invention discloses a connection interface. The connection interface includes a first set of pins, including a plurality of pins corresponding to Universal Serial Bus (USB) 3.0 specifications; and a second set of pins, including a plurality of pins corresponding to USB 2.0 specifications; wherein the first set of pins and the second set of pins are arranged side-by-side with each other, and the second set of pins are arranged according to a front panel header definition of the USB 2.0 specifications.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    1. Field of the Invention 
         [0002]    The present invention relates to a connection interface of Universal Serial Bus 3.0 (USB 3.0), and more particularly, to a connection interface with a front panel header definition capable of reducing required types of cable and manufacturing cost. 
         [0003]    2. Description of the Prior Art 
         [0004]    Universal Serial Bus (USB) is a connection specification established by some of leaders of the industry, and has characteristics such as easy-to-use, good extensibility and high speed. The operation speed of the USB 3.0 issued at 2008 reaches 5 Gbit/s, and is ten times faster than the operation speed of USB 2.0 (480 Mbps). So far, the USB has extensively applied in various electronic products. 
         [0005]    At the end of 2010, two main central processing unit (CPU) manufacturers Intel and AMD announce chip sets of the next generation will support the USB 3.0 interface, but the chip sets of Intel and those of AMD will have different front panel header definitions of the USB 3.0 specifications. Since a computer needs a specific cable to connect a circuit board and a USB port assembled on a housing of the computer, two different motherboards designed respectively according to the front panel header definitions of the chip set of Intel and the chip set of AMD need different USB 3.0 cables due to the different front panel header definitions. As a result, types of the cable and possibility of erroneously assembling increase. The material cost and the manufacturing cost also rise. 
         [0006]    Furthermore, Intel and AMD both produce chip sets supporting and not supporting the USB 3.0 (i.e. Intel chip sets H77, H61 and AMD chip sets A75, A55). If a chip set supporting the USB 3.0 is assembled on a motherboard and needs to be replaced by a chip set not supporting the USB 3.0, a new specification of USB 2.0 cable is required due to inconsistency between the front panel header definition of the USB 2.0 specifications and that of current specifications. 
         [0007]    In detail, please refer to  FIG. 1A , which is a schematic diagram a conventional connection interface  100  conforming to the front panel header definition of the USB 2.0 specifications. As shown in  FIG. 1A , the connection interface only comprises 10 pins, which comprises a first differential pair of pins USB 2 _D 1 +, USB 2 _D 1 − (pins  6 ,  8 ), a second differential pair of pins USB 2 _D 2 +, USB 2 _D 2 − (pins  5 ,  7 ), power pins USB_VBUS (pins  9 ,  10 ) and ground pins GND (pins  3 ,  4 ). The power pins USB_VBUS and the ground pins GND are respectively corresponding to each differential pair of pins. Finally, a pin  1  and a pin  2  are respectively a ground pin GND and a not connected (NC) pin, and are utilized for dummy-proof procedure of the motherboard to prevent the connector from being erroneously connected. 
         [0008]    Next, please refer to  FIG. 1B  and  FIG. 1C , which are schematic diagrams of connection interfaces  102  and  104  according to the front panel header definitions established by Intel and AMD, respectively. As shown in  FIG. 1B  and  FIG. 1C , the connection interfaces  102  and  104  established by Intel and AMD both comprise 20 pins, wherein the pins for the USB 3.0 comprises a first receiving differential pair of pins USB 3 _SSRX 1 +, USB 3 _SSRX 1 −, a first transmitting differential pair of pins USB 3 _SSTX 1 +, USB 3 _SSTX 1 −, a second receiving differential pair of pins USB 3 _SSRX 2 +, USB 3 _SSRX 2 −, and a second transmitting differential pair of pins USB 3 _SSTX 2 +, USB 3 _SSTX 2 −. Furthermore, since both of the connection interfaces  102  and  104  are backward compatible to the USB 2.0, pins of the connection interfaces  102  and  104  both further comprise each pin of the first differential pair of pins USB 2 _D 1 +, USB 2 _D 1 − and the second differential pair of pins USB 2 _D 2 +, USB 2 _D 2 − of the connection interface  100  shown in FIG.  1 A. However, differences between the connection interfaces  102  and  104  are that the corresponding pins of the connection interfaces  102  and  104  are at different relative positions. For example, the first receiving differential pair of pins USB 3 _SSRX 1 +, USB 3 _SSRX 1 − for the USB 3.0 are respectively at pins  2 ,  3  of the connection interface  102  ( FIG. 1B ) but are respectively at pins  17 ,  18  of the connection interface  104  ( FIG. 1C ). In addition, the first differential pair of pins for the USB 2.0 USB 2 _D 1 +, USB 2 _D 1 − are respectively at pins  8 ,  9  of the connection interface  102 , but are at pins  11 ,  12  of the connection interface  104 . Finally, the dummy-proof pins NC of the connection interfaces  102  and  104  are also at opposite positions. 
         [0009]    As can be seen from the above, motherboards designed respectively according to the front panel header definitions of Intel and AMD cannot jointly use a cable of a transmission port; thus, the manufacturing cost rises. Besides, if the motherboards co-operate with chip sets or transmission ports of the USB 2.0 specifications, the USB 2.0 cables also cannot be used and a new cable specification (from 20 pins to 10 pins) needs to be established. The required plastic area of the new cable specification is double of those of the existed cable of the USB 2.0 specifications and the number of pins of the new cable specification is also substantially doubled, which increases the material cost and the manufacturing cost rise, and is not environmentally friendly. 
         [0010]    Therefore, developing a front panel header definition of the USB 3.0 specifications capable of reducing required types of cable and jointly using the existed USB 2.0 cable to reduce the material cost and the manufacturing cost becomes a common goal in the industry. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0011]    An embodiment of the invention discloses a connection interface. The connection interface comprises a first set of pins, comprising a plurality of pins corresponding to Universal Serial Bus (USB) 3.0 specifications; and a second set of pins, comprising a plurality of pins corresponding to USB 2.0 specifications; wherein the first set of pins and the second set of pins are arranged side-by-side with each other, and the second set of pins are arranged according to a front panel header definition of the USB 2.0 specifications. 
         [0012]    An embodiment of the invention further discloses a cable, for connecting a circuit board and a Universal Serial Bus (USB) transmission port to transmit data between the circuit board and the USB transmission port. The cable comprises a first connector, for connecting to the circuit board, comprising a first set of pins, comprising a plurality of pins corresponding to USB 3.0 specifications; and a second set of pins, comprising a plurality of pins corresponding to USB 2.0 specifications; and a second connector for connecting to the USB port, comprising: a third set of pins, comprising a plurality of pins corresponding to the USB 3.0 specifications, respectively coupled to the first set of pins of the first connector; and a fourth set of pins, comprising a plurality of pins corresponding to the USB 2.0 specifications, respectively coupled to the second set of pins of the first connector; wherein the first set of pins and the second set of pins are arranged side-by-side with each other, the third set of pins and the fourth set of pins are arranged side-by-side with each other, and the second set of pins and the fourth set of pins are arranged according to a front panel header definition of the USB 2.0 specifications. 
         [0013]    These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0014]      FIG. 1A-1C  are schematic diagrams of front panel header definitions of conventional USB specifications. 
           [0015]      FIG. 2  is a schematic diagram of a front panel header definition of USB specifications according to an embodiment of the invention. 
           [0016]      FIG. 3  is a schematic diagram of a data transmission system according to an embodiment of the invention. 
           [0017]      FIG. 4  is a schematic diagram of a data transmission system according to an embodiment of the invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0018]    Please refer to  FIG. 2 , which is a schematic diagram of a connection interface  200  according to an embodiment of the invention. The connection interface  200  can be utilized in data transmissions of the USB 3.0, also can be backward compatible to data transmissions of the USB 2.0. The connection interface  200  comprises pins  1 - 20 . As shown in  FIG. 2 , each pin of the pins  1 - 10  and arrangement thereof conform to the front panel header definition of the current USB 2.0 specifications, i.e. the connection interface  100  shown in  FIG. 1A . On the other hand, each pin of the pins  11 - 20  is respectively corresponding to pins for the USB 3.0 specifications of the connection interfaces  102  and  104  shown in  FIG. 1B  and  FIG. 1C . 
         [0019]    Simply speaking, different from the connection interfaces  102  and  104  conforming to the USB 3.0 specifications, the pins for backward-supporting the USB 2.0 specifications of the connection interface  200  (pins  1 - 10 ) are independent and are arranged side-by-side with the pins corresponding to the USB 3.0 specifications (pins  11 - 20 ) in two independent blocks. Therefore, when a motherboard configured with the connection interface  200  co-operates with a chip set or a USB port which does not support USB 3.0 specifications, an existed USB 2.0 cable can be directly utilized for connecting to the lower part of the connection interface  200  (i.e. the pins  1 - 10 ) to achieve the USB 2.0 transmission function without re-establishing a USB 2.0 cable of a new specification. Thus, the material cost and the manufacturing cost can be effectively reduced. 
         [0020]    In detail, the pins  1 - 10  of the connection interface  200  are those of the USB 2.0 connection interface  100  shown in  FIG. 1A . Therefore, the pins  1 - 10  can be directly couple to the existed USB 2.0 cable. Next, the pins  11 - 20  are corresponding to the pins utilized for the USB 3.0 specification of the connection interfaces  102  and  104  shown in  FIG. 1B  and  FIG. 1C . The pins  18 ,  20  are respectively the first receiving differential pair of pins USB 3 _SSRX 1 +, USB 3 _SSRX 1 − of the USB 3.0 specifications, and are corresponding to the pins  2 ,  3  of the connection interface  102  established by Intel (shown in  FIG. 1B ) or the pins  17 ,  18  of the connection interface  104  established by AMD (shown in  FIG. 1C ). The pins  12 ,  14  are respectively the first transmission differential pair of pins USB 3 _SSTX 1 +, USB 3 _SSTX 1 − of the USB 3.0 specifications, and are corresponding to the pins  5 ,  6  of the connection interface  102  or the pins  14 ,  15  of the connection interface  104 . The pins  17 ,  19  are respectively the second receiving differential pair of pins USB 3 _SSRX 2 +, USB 3 _SSRX 2 −, and are corresponding to the pins  17 ,  18  of the connection interface  102  or the pins  2 ,  3  of the connection interface  104 . The pins  11 ,  13  are respectively the second transmission differential pair of pins USB 3 _SSTX 2 +, USB 3 _SSTX 2 −, and are corresponding to the pins  14 - 15  of the connection interface  102  or the pins  5 ,  6  of the connection interface  104 . Furthermore, the pins  15 ,  16  are the ground pins. Therefore, when a motherboard operate with the USB 3.0, a USB 3.0 cable designed according to the front panel header definition of the connection interface  200  can be utilized for connecting the pins  1 - 20  of the connection interface  200  of the motherboard and a corresponding USB 3.0 transmission port. On the other hand, when the motherboard co-operates with the chip set and the transmission port of the USB 2.0 specifications, an existed USB 2.0 cable can be directly utilized for connecting the lower part of the connection interface  200  (i.e. pins  1 - 10 ), to achieve the USB 2.0 transmission function between the motherboard and the transmission port; thus, there is no need to re-establish a cable having 10 pins of the new specification. Comparatively, since the pins corresponding to the USB 2.0 and the USB 3.0 of the connection interfaces  102  and  104  respectively established by Intel and AMD are arranged dependently and staggered, a cable of the new specification is needed for co-operating with the existed transmission port or the chip set. 
         [0021]    Therefore, the goal of the front panel header definition of the connection interface  200  is separating the set of the pins of the USB 2.0 and the set of the pins of the USB 3.0 to two independent blocks. Thus, the two sets of pins can be separately or jointly used according to different applications. In other words, the motherboard designed according to the front panel header definition of the connection interface  200  does not need to establish the cable of the new specification while co-operating with different chip sets, and those skilled in the art can use the connection interface  200  for different applications according to different requirements. 
         [0022]    For example, please refer to  FIG. 3 , which is a schematic diagram of a data transmission system  30  using the connection interface  200  according to an embodiment of the invention. The data transmission system  30  comprises a motherboard  300 , a cable  306 , a USB transmission port  308  and a device  310 , and is utilized for performing high speed data transmissions of the USB 3.0 specifications between the motherboard  300  and the device  310 . The motherboard  300  comprises the connection interface  200  and a chip set  302  supporting the USB 3.0 specifications. The connection interface  200  is utilized for coupling the cable  306  to the transmission port  308 . The chip set  302  is utilized for controlling the data transmissions between the motherboard  300  and the transmission port  308 . The transmission port  308  and the cable  306  are designed according to the front panel header definition of the connection interface  200  of the invention. In detail, the cable  306  comprises a first connector  306   a  and a second connector  306   b . The first connector  306   a  comprises 20 pins and can be coupled to the connection interface  200  of the motherboard  300 . The second connector  306   b  also comprises 20 pins for coupling to the transmission port  308 . Therefore, when the device  310  connects to the motherboard  300  through the transmission port  308 , the chip set  302  can control the motherboard  300  and the device  310  to perform the high speed data transmissions of the USB 3.0 specifications. 
         [0023]    In another embodiment, the motherboard  300  can also co-operate with a chip set not supporting the USB 3.0 specifications. For example, please refer to the  FIG. 4 , which is a schematic diagram of a data transmission system  40 . The data transmission system  40  is a co-operation of the motherboard  300  shown in  FIG. 3  and a chip set  402  of the USB 2.0 specifications. The data transmission system  40  comprises the motherboard  300  shown in  FIG. 3 , a cable  406 , a USB transmission port  408  and a device  410 . The data transmission system  40  is utilized for performing data transmissions of the USB 2.0 specifications between the motherboard  300  and the device  410 . The cable  406  is an existed USB 2.0 cable and comprises a first connector  406   a  and a second connector  406   b . The first connector  406   a  only comprises 10 pins and can be coupled to the lower part of the connection interface  200  of the motherboard  300  (i.e. pins  1 - 10 ). As shown in  FIG. 4 , the second connector  406   b  also comprises 10 pins for being coupled to the transmission port  408 . Therefore, when the device  410  connects to the motherboard  300  through the transmission port  408 , the chip set  402  can control the motherboard  300  and the device  410  to perform the data transmission of the USB 2.0 specifications. 
         [0024]    Note that, the spirit of the invention is establishing an innovative front panel header definition of the USB 3.0 specifications on a circuit board. As a result, the circuit board can use a transmission port of the front panel definition of the existed specifications when the circuit board co-operates with the chip set only supporting the USB 2.0 and use an exited USB 2.0 cable when assembling a system. The circuit board uses a transmission port designed according to the front panel header definition of the USB 3.0 specifications when the circuit board co-operates with a chip set supporting the USB 3.0 and uses a newly established USB 3.0 cable when assembling a system. According to different requirements, those skilled in the art can observe appropriate modifications and alternations. For example, in the connection interface  200 , as long as the block of the pins of the USB 2.0 can be coupled to the connector of the existed USB 2.0 cable, the method of arranging the pins of the USB 2.0 and the pins of the USB 3.0 is not limited herein. In addition, the pins of the USB 3.0 can also be arranged in different methods, which is not limited herein. 
         [0025]    To sum up, according to the conventional front panel header definition of the USB 3.0, when a circuit board co-operates with a chip set or a transmission port not supporting the USB 3.0, a cable of a new specification is needed to be established. In comparison, when a circuit board using the connection interface  200  of the invention co-operates with the chip set or the transmission port not supporting the USB 3.0, the circuit board can uses an exited USB 2.0 cable to achieve the transmission function of the USB 2.0, and does not need to re-establish a cable of the new specification. Therefore, the material cost and the manufacturing cost of the circuit board can be effectively reduced and the possibility of erroneously assembling also can be lowered. 
         [0026]    Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the device and method may be made while retaining the teachings of the invention. Accordingly, the above disclosure should be construed as limited only by the metes and bounds of the appended claims.