Any EE people on here?

[fleabag]

I was looking at the internals of a USB stick and was thinking about how few discrete devices there were inside, just a controller and a memory module. I was thinking about upgrading an older laptop that has USB 1.1 to USB 2.0, but doing it the hard way. Instead of getting a PC Card and sticking it in, you'd desolder the old USB controller chip and replace it with a USB 2.0 controller chip. I have to wonder now, how different is USB 1.1 and USB 2.0? I know that there are some substantial changes with USB 3.0 due to the additional pins but for USB 1.1 and 2.0, I'm wondering if it's just a chip away from being USB 2.0.

 

[esun]

There is likely peripheral circuitry that feeding the USB 1.1 chip (e.g., power, I/O, etc.) that would also have to be replaced. I'd imagine it'd be substantially more difficult than just replacing one chip, though I don't actually know from experience.

EDIT: Actually, one thing you could do is look up the datasheets for each of the chips and see how they differ in terms of specifications. If the voltage and timing characteristics of the chips are the same, it probably could be done. If not, then probably not so easily.

 

[fleabag]

I just realized one potential problem, USB is integrated into the south bridge of most if not all motherboard chipsets, right? So the only way to upgrade to a higher version USB would be to replace the southbridge therefore a dead end...right?

 

[Modelworks]

You would also have to find a chip that uses the exact same instructions as the old one on the motherboard side. Even if the new chips pinout was the same it wouldn't work unless the motherboard side communicated with the same instructions.

 

[Aberforth]

The BIOS should support USB 2.0 that is compatible with ACPI and there will be driver signature issues as well.

 

[blahblah99]

USB 2.0 enumeration (device discovery process) is slightly different than 1.1, so even if you can get a hardware upgrade you have to make sure your OS's device drivers and usb stack works with your laptop's hardware and the new usb chip.

On top of that, you might have to upgrade the power supply circuitry for the usb 2.0 chip as higher speeds require more power.

And to top it off, pcb layout requirements for usb 2.0 are more stringent than usb 1.1 because of the higher speeds involved.

I wouldn't attempt it. You'll end up with a heavy paperweight.

 

[videogames101]

If you don't NEED the laptop anymore, then go for it.

 

[Colt45]

everything 686 or newer ( i forget how P1 boards did it, maybe them too.), the USB should be on the southbridge... so you're hooped.


They do make mini-pci USB2 cards though, if you want to get creative...

 

[fleabag]

Originally posted by: Colt45
everything 686 or newer ( i forget how P1 boards did it, maybe them too.), the USB should be on the southbridge... so you're hooped.


They do make mini-pci USB2 cards though, if you want to get creative...

Oh, so add it to the PCI bus..somehow? hah

 

[murphyslabrat]

no, you'd install the card, and either break off the motherboard's USB connector, and replace it with a connector attached to one of the USB card's headers. Otherwise, you could just buy a new laptop...or just live with USB 1.1...

 

[Jabbernyx]

It'd just be easier to either get a PCMCIA USB2.0 card or a new laptop.

 

[gsellis]

I say you are destined for failure. With multi-layer boards, you have multiple paths in each of the layers. Soldier works on old school, but you are getting into more than you can touch.