Universal USB Development Kit for Windows
Features Supported Platforms Demo Documentation Prices
The new version 2.60 of the USBIO Development Kit is available now.
Standard USB devices are normally supported by class drivers already included in the Windows operating system. In many cases, a particular USB device cannot be assigned to a device class because it has to fulfill different requirements, or because to implement the class specification in the device firmware is too time consuming. This makes a custom USB device driver development necessary, a kernel-mode driver which conforms to the Windows Driver Model (WDM).
The development and debugging process of such a kernel-mode driver is very time consuming, especially if the driver has to support different Windows versions. For this reason, Thesycon developed the generic USB device driver USBIO. The USBIO software components can be integrated into a final product with product-specific adaptations if necessary (e.g. file names, installation paths, copyright messages). The result is a customized version that can be shipped as part of an end user product.
Furthermore, the USBIO driver is very useful for developing, debugging, and testing of USB devices and firmware. It enables rapid development of debug and test applications.
USBIO Features
- USB Support. The complete USB functionality is supported. The driver is optimized for maximum efficiency. The USBIO driver supports USB 3.0, USB 2.0 and USB 1.1. It supports low, full, high, and super speed mode.
Note: For USB3.0 controllers Microsoft has actually no bus driver released. In the market are different USB3.0 host controllers with own bus drivers. Thesycon can not guarantee that the USBIO runs with all solutions. - Operating Systems. The USBIO driver supports all current 32 bit and 64 bit Windows operating systems.
- USB Transfer Types. The USBIO driver supports the USB transfer types Control, Interrupt, Bulk, and Isochronous.
- USB Device Endpoints. The USBIO driver provides an interface to USB endpoints (pipes) that is similar to Win32 file I/O interface.
- Asynchronous Data Transfer. The driver provides full support for asynchronous (overlapped) data transfer operations.
- Power Management. The driver supports the Windows power management model.
- Applications. The USBIO driver provides an interface to USB devices that can be used by any Windows 32/64 bit applications. Multiple applications can use the USBIO driver at the same time.
- Multiple USB Configurations. The USBIO driver can be used with devices that implement multiple USB configurations. It supports switching between different USB configurations.
- Multiple USB Interfaces. The USBIO driver can be used with devices that implement multiple USB interfaces. In this case a multi-interface driver is required. Alternative to the Windows Multi-Interface Driver Thesycon offers an own USB Multi-Interface Driver.
- Multiple USB Devices. Multiple USB devices can be controlled by USBIO at the same time.
- Customizing. The USBIO allows vendor- and product-specific adaptations.
- Programming Interfaces. The USBIO provides a Windows programming interface for use in C, C++ and Java programs. A high-level programming interface, the USBIO COM interface, is also available.
- WHQL Certification. The driver conforms to Windows Driver Model (WDM) and can be certified by Windows Hardware Quality Labs (WHQL) for Windows XP (32 bit and 64 bit), Windows Vista (32 bit and 64 bit) and Windows 7 (32 bit and 64 bit) operating systems.
- Source Code Examples. Several source code examples demonstrate usage of the programming interfaces and show how an application controls a USB device.
- Appropriate Embedded USB Stacks. In addition to the Thesycon device driver an Embedded USB Device Stack and an Embedded USB Host Stack are available for several microcontrollers. With these development kits Thesycon provides complete solutions for implementing the firmware and device driver for USB devices quickly and cost-effective.
Windows Vista
Windows XP
Windows 2000
Windows 98/ME
Windows Embedded Enterprise
Windows Embedded POSReady
Windows Embedded Server
Windows XP embedded
Windows Server 2008
Windows Server 2003
Windows Home Server
USBIO for Windows CE and Windows Mobile
A compatible USB driver is available for Windows CE and Windows Mobile.
Easy Installation
Using Thesycon’s PnP Driver Installer it is very easy to create a specific setup wizard that handles driver installation, un-installation and update in a comfortable and reliable way. For more information on PnP Driver Installer, check out http://www.thesycon.de/pnpinstaller.
Free Demo
The new version 2.60 of the USBIO Development Kit is available now.
USBIO Demo is time-limited but has full functionality. The device driver can be used for 4 hours. Then all function calls will be rejected and the computer must be rebooted in order to use the demo again. The demo package includes the USBIO device driver, the complete documentation and the source code of all programming examples.
Current Version: 2.60
NOTE: The driver described on this page is *not for use by end users*. It will not help to solve any problems you may experience with a consumer device such as a webcam, camcorder, card reader, external sound card, etc. Thesycon’s device drivers are software components intended to use by hardware or software manufacturers to create end products.
Documentation
USBIO COM Interface Documentation 
Licensing Conditions and Prices
Prices
Licensing
USBIO Software License Agreement – Runtime License
USBIO Software License Agreement – Driver Source Code License
USBIO Software License Agreement – USBIOCOM Source Code License
USB Vendor and Product ID
When designing a USB device you need an official USB vendor ID (VID) which is unique world-wide. Vendor ID's will be assigned by the USB Implementers Forum (www.usb.org). There is a fee of $1500 US.
Thesycon owns a USB vendor ID and provides a subset of product ID's (PID) to customers who licensed our USB software.
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