The FTDI news archive pages keeps track of some historical news items that have been moved from the home page. 

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• 2004 and earlier

Our thanks to everyone who visited our staff at Electronica 2006.  A photograph of our staff at the show is available to view here.

Based on the new Vinculum host controller chip from FTDI, this development kit demonstrates how to interface a USB Flash drive to a small microcontroller.  The DLP-VLOG has an on-board temperature & humidity sensor, real-time clock and two analogue input channels for measuring voltages in the 0-30 Volt range.  All acquired data is written to the USB Flash drive via the Vinculum host interface IC.

A product flyer is available here.

FTDI sales and engineering staff will be co-exhibiting with Unitronic at Electronica from 14th - 17th November 2006.  Our staff will be available to answer your questions in hall 6 at booth A6.275.

The DLP-PROP uses the FT232RL with the new Propeller chip from Parallax Inc. and is lead-free.  The DLP-PROP has an on-board 3.3V regulator, standard 40-pin, 0.6 inch footprint, EEPROM for program storage and is compatible with the new Spin development environment from Parallax.

The DLP-PROP is available now on-line from the FTDI Chip Shop, directly from FTDI or through the FTDI worldwide sales network.

FTDI are pleased to announce the availability of a D2XX driver for Mac OS X.  Drivers are available for Power PC based Macs running 10.3 "Panther" and later and Intel based Macs running 10.4 "Tiger" and later.  The Mac OS X installation guide has been amended to include the D2XX driver installation.

Our thanks to all those who attended the seminar on the Vinculum embedded USB host controller and visited our stand at the ESC - Boston show.  A photograph of our staff at the exhibition is available to view here.  Also, the presentation can be downloaded from the ESC Boston web site.

An updated version of the FT2232C and FT2232L devices is now available.  The FT2232D is not a new generation of FT2232 device, but it does provide some enhancements including a new CPU FIFO mode and an extended operating temperature range. 

The FT2232D is available now from the FTDI web shop and through the FTDI sales network.

A range of variants based on the TTL-232R USB - TTL level serial cable are now available.  The range offers a selection of serial connector options and IO voltages as follows:

• TTL-232R (6-pin SIL connector, 5V IOs)

• TTL-232R-3V3 (6-pin SIL connector, 3.3V IOs)

• TTL-232R-AJ (Audio Jack connector, 5V IOs)

• TTL-232R-3V3-AJ (Audio Jack connector, 3.3V IOs)

• TTL-232R-PCB (Populated PCB from the TTL-232R USB connector, 5V IOs)

• TTL-232R-3V3-PCB (Populated PCB from the TTL-232R-3V3 USB connector, 3V3 IOs)

• TTL-232R-WE (No connector at serial end, 5V IOs)

• TTL-232R-3V3-WE (No connector at serial end, 3.3V IOs)

All the TTL-232R variants are available now from the FTDI web shop and the FTDI sales network.

The initial versions of the VDIF, VDAP and VDFC firmware are now available for free download from the Downloads section of the Vinculum web site.

The VPROG utility has also been made available as a free download to allow the VNC1L-1A firmware to be upgraded through the UART using an FTDI 232 USB-serial device.  A user manual is provided with the VPROG application download.

The UB232R provides the basic functionality of a USB - Serial converter and is even smaller than the MM232R.  To minimise the size of the module, the UB232R uses a standard USB mini-B connector.  It is ideal for new development purposes and also for adding a USB interface to existing product designs.

The UB232R is available now from the FTDI web shop and through the FTDI sales network.

The DLP-FLASH is now available at a reduced price of £39.95/~$79.00/~?61.50. 

The DLP-FLASH is available now from the FTDI web shop and through the FTDI sales network.

The DLP-RFID1 RFID reader/writer is now available with a pack of 10 RFID transponder tags from the FTDI web shop.  A pack of 10 RFID transponder tags is also available separately.

FTDI would like to thank all those who attended the seminar on the Vinculum embedded USB host controller and visited our stand at the ESC - Taiwan show.  A photograph of our staff at the exhibition is available to view here.

Visit us at the forthcoming Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) in Boston, where FTDI will be exhibiting at Booth 820.  The show runs from Tuesday September 26th through to Wednesday September 27th at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, MA.  Present at the show will be Bob Recny and Jim Kenney from our US office together with Keith Dingwall and Fred Dart - we look forward to seeing you there.

Guests are also invited to attend our 90 minute seminar "Vinculum - Embedded USB Host Controllers Made Easy" on Wednesday 27th September at 2pm.  As guest speaker, co-presenting with Fred, Bob and Keith at the seminar will be Don Powrie of DLP Design who will share his insight and experience of developing 3rd party products based on the VNC1L with us all.

In addition to the new Vinculum family of USB Host Controller devices and modules, we will also be exhibiting our popular range of USB interface device and module solutions.

The September issue of Elektor magazine includes an RFID reader project which uses the FT232RQ device to provide a USB interface.  The module described interfaces the FT232RQ to a Philips P89LPC936 microcontroller which can be programmed over USB via the FT232RQ.  The design described can both read from and write to all types of RFID card that are compatible with the MIFARE and ISO 14443-A international standards.

A press release for the Vinculum IC can also be found at Elektor.

FTDI are pleased to announced the release of the Vinculum family of embedded USB Host Controller devices.  The Vinculum USB Host Controller ICs not only handle the USB Host Interface and data transfer functions, but owing to the inbuilt 8/32-bit MCU and embedded Flash memory, Vinculum encapsulates the USB device classes as well.  When interfacing to mass storage devices such as USB Flash drives, Vinculum also transparently handles the FAT file structure communicating via UART, SPI or parallel FIFO interfaces via a simple to implement command set.

The initial product member of the family is the VNC1L device which features two USB Ports which can be individually configured by firmware as Host or Slave ports.

Key VNC1L features include:

• 8/32 bit V-MCU Core

• Dual DMA controllers for hardware acceleration

• 64k Embedded Flash Program Memory

• 4k internal Data SRAM

• 2 x USB 2.0 Slow/Full speed Host/Slave Ports

• UART, SPI and Parallel FIFO interfaces

• PS2 legacy Keyboard and Mouse Interfaces

• Up to 28 GPIO pins depending on configuration

• 3.3V operation with 5V safe inputs

• Low power operation (25mA running/2mA standby)

• Inbuilt FTDI firmware easily updated in the field

• LQFP-48 RoHS compliant package

• Multi-processor configuration capable

To learn more about the new Vinculum IC and evaluation modules, please visit the Vinculum web site.

The VNC1L is available now from the FTDI web shop and is available through the FTDI sales network.

The DLP-RFID1 is a low-cost, USB-powered module for reading and writing ISO 15693, ISO 18000-3, and Tag-it™ passive RFID transponder tags.  It has the ability to both read and write up to 256 bytes of data in addition to reading the unique identifier (UID). 

The DLP-RFID1 is available on-line from the FTDI Chip Shop, in the USA from DLP Design directly or worldwide through the FTDI Sales Network.

FTDI are pleased to announce that FTDI products are now available from GLYN Ltd. in Australia and New Zealand.  Contact details for GLYN can be found on our Sales Network page.

The DLP-245PB-G is an updated version of the popular DLP-245PB DIP module featuring the PIC 16F877.  The new DLP-245PB-G module has been updated to use the FT245RL device and the PIC 16F877A.  The module is now lead-free and is available at a reduced price.

The DLP-245PB-G is available on-line from the FTDI Chip Shop, in the USA from DLP Design directly or worldwide through the FTDI Sales Network.

FTDI are pleased to announce the availability of a new Microsoft WHQL certified driver for Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP x64 and Windows Server 2003 x64.  The Combined Driver Model (CDM) driver merges the functionality of the previous VCP and D2XX drivers for the Windows operating systems listed above.

In addition to providing VCP support, the bus layer of the driver can also provide D2XX functionality, thus allowing the driver to be used with either COM port or D2XX applications.  Whether a COM port should be exposed is initially determined by the driver type EEPROM setting for newer FTDI devices (FT232R, FT245R, FT2232C).  Older devices will default to creating a COM port to ensure compatibility with applications which may use either the COM port or D2XX interface.  These settings can be overridden through a new USB Serial Converter property page.

The CDM driver is also compatible with DPInst and installer executables for default VID and PID combinations are provided on our VCP and D2XX driver pages.

AN232R-04 Windows Combined Driver Model describes the new driver in more detail and explains some of the advantages.  Driver packages and installers can be downloaded from our driver pages.

FTDI are pleased to announce the release of three new FT232R USB - RS232 evaluation cables: the US232R-100 premium USB - RS232 converter cable (1m), the US232R-10 premium USB - RS232 converter cable (10cm) and the UC232R-10 economy USB-RS232 converter cable (10cm).

All of these products have now been added to the FTDI Chip Shop and are available through regular FTDI distribution channels.

A variant of the TTL-232R USB - TTL serial evaluation cable is now available.  The TTL-232R-3V3 USB-TTL Level (3.3V) serial converter cable provides the same functionality with access to the same signals, but the I/O interface is at 3.3V instead of 5V. 

The TTL-232R-3V3 has now been added to the FTDI Chip Shop and are available through regular FTDI distribution channels.

The DLP-245PL-G is now available in a specially priced bundle with the CCS C compiler.  The compiler allows the user to modify the DLP-245PL-G firmware with a limited version of the same compiler used to develop the original code.  The only limitations of this compiler version are the microcontrollers supported (18LF8722 PIC microcontrollers) and 30-days of download rights after registration.  This bundle represents a rare opportunity for both seasoned and aspiring microcontroller developers to hit the ground running with all the tools they’ll need to edit and compile custom firmware for the PIC 18LF8722 microcontroller. 

To learn more about the DLP-245PL-G, click here.

The DLP-D Security Dongle uses the FTDIChip-ID™ identification feature which is readable over USB but cannot be altered by any means. 

Since each FTDIChip-ID™ is unique, this device provides a way of linking application software to a specific hardware dongle with a high level of security.
 

The DLP-D is available on-line from the FTDI Chip Shop, directly from FTDI, on-line from Mouser or through the FTDI worldwide sales network.

To learn more about the DLP-D, click here, or read the Elisnet press release.

The new TTL-232R is a USB - TTL serial converter cable which will allow for a simple way to connect serial TTL level devices to USB.

The TTL-232R uses a FT232RQ chip which is housed within the USB "A" connector. A 1.8 meter (71.0") cable is terminated with a 1.8m cable with a 6 way 0.1" pitch header socket which provides access to the Transmit (Tx), Receive (Rx), RTS#, and CTS#, as well as VCC (5V) and GND.
 

The TTL-232R is competitively priced at $20 each in small quantities.  It is available on-line from the FTDI Chip Shop, directly from FTDI, on-line from Mouser or through the FTDI worldwide sales network.

To learn more about the TTL-232R, click here.

FTDI would like to extend our thanks everyone who took the time to visit our stand at Embedded World in Nürnberg in February.

FTDI's new FT232R and FT245R IC devices and development modules are now available for North American customers to purchase on-line from Mouser. 

FTDI will be co-exhibiting with Unitronic at Embedded World 2006 (Hall 12, Stand 12-224) in Nürnberg, Germany from 14th-16th February. FTDI sales and engineering staff will be available to answer your questions on our full range of IC devices and modules.

A DLL has been released to allow the extraction of the FTDIChip-ID™ from FT232R and FT245R devices.  The FTChipID DLL and examples in several programming environments can be downloaded here.

The DLP-TILT module, based on the FT232R, is now available.  To learn more about the DLP-TILT, click here.

FTDI Opens New USA Branch Office

We are also pleased to announce the opening of a new branch office in the USA.  The branch office is located in Hillsboro, Oregon - in the thick of the "Silicon Forest" just outside of Portland.  Full contact details for the new office can be found on our Contact page.  Items ordered from the FTDI Web Shop will now ship direct to customers in the USA and Canada from our USA branch office at local rates.

A range of FT232R based modules and FT245R based modules are now available.  The range includes USB - Serial converters, DIP modules and a mini-module a little larger than a USB connector.

These modules allow customers to quickly evaluate the FT232R and FT245R devices before commencing their own design and many are suitable for including in low/medium volume production.

To see the range of FT232R modules, click here.

To see the range of FT245R modules, click here.

New Microsoft WHQL Certified VCP Driver Released
FTDI are please to announce that a new Microsoft WHQL Certified VCP driver is now available.  The new VCP driver (R2176) will run under Windows XP and Windows 2000 and supports our FT232R, FT245R, FT2232C, FT232BM, FT245BM, FT8U232AM and FT8U245AM devices.

To download the driver, please visit our VCP Drivers page.

In addition, this driver meets the requirements for Microsoft's Driver Install Frameworks (DIFx) tools.  For further details, please see the application note AN232R-03 FTDI Windows Driver Pre-Installation.