Windows machine as USB-488/USBTMC device

Question

I would like to use a windows machine as a USB488/USBTMC device. USB488/USBTMC is a reimplementation of the good old GPIB/IEEE-488 on USB rails. But most articles on the topic refer to a Windows machine as a host/controller. The Windows USB stack is not well suited for USB device/USB OTG modes. However, if you look at some of the high-end gear like oscilloscopes and spectrum/network analyzers, it is well known that they are often Windows machines inside with some additional hardware. So, how it is done?

To some background: it is a project to retrofit a very old SEM microscope with new hardware. The current one is a 68k custom system with a CRT that uses a GPIB interface for comm with a PC. Things like sample spectroscopy are done as a BASIC program running on a pc and communicating through that gpib port. The plan is to replace that 68k junk with a modern day windows pc with an FPGA on a PCIe bus. For compatibility reasons, it would be nice to have a usb488 port in the new PC. Though I have no idea of how to do it properly. The only solution I have so far is to have some cheap USB-capable micro hanging on the SPI bus on the FPGA facing side and a USBTDM class on the USB side. But maybe Im missing something and there is a specific thing or chip that exists that can do it that Im not aware of.

Answer 1

I can only speculate how high-end oscilloscopes achieve it. The most likely option is that they use a dedicated chip like a MAX3420E. It is connected via SPI. Part of the USB protocol is implemented by the chip, part of it will be implemented by the oscilloscope software.

Most USB controllers chips found in PCs can operate as the host only. And even if they could do a role swap, Windows (for Desktop) has not supported device/peripheral mode until recently. It now does. See USB Dual Role Driver Stack Architecture. But I don't fully understand it to tell you what hardware you would need to purchase where this feature is enabled.

Role swapping is very common on smartphones. It is also implemented in Linux (search for "Linux USB gadget"). Many Apple Macs can run in Target Disk Mode, which is a USB device/peripheral mode as well.

• Baka Gaijin: Thank you. PLX USB3380, but it is ridiculously complex. USBTDM-over-SPI would be much more convenient solution.
• Codo: Interesting information. PLX USB3380 is of course far more powerful and several orders magnitude faster than an SPI-to-USB solution. The complexity very much depends on Windows driver support. If it is supported, at least on a generic USB level, it's doable. Otherwise it's a very extensive project indeed.

Answer 2

gpib/ieee488 is considered as obsolete now. the fastest way to implement this equipment is PC with an microcontroller like RP2040 or Portenta H7, and use LXI on HISLIP protocol.

• SmellyCat: Yes, it does look like it IEEE 488 became inactive 3 years ago.