USB Flash Drive Standardization Efforts

1
USB Flash Drive Standardization Efforts

• John Loveall
• Group Program ManagerWDEG, Storage
  Devicesjloveall _at_ microsoft.com
• Microsoft Corporation

2
Session Outline

• Overview USB Flash Drives and the Windows
  Platform
• Industry Standardization Efforts
• USB Flash Drive Alliance (UFDA)
• U3
• IEEE P1667
• Closing summary and call to action

3
Session Goals

• Understand the synergy of USB flash drives and
  the Windows platform
• Become familiar with key standardization efforts
  in the USB flash drive space
• Take away contact information to enable
  innovative ideas for your products and market

4
Storage Devices Key Windows Strategies
Leading platform supporting storage fabrics
Optimized platform features enabling new customer
scenarios in Personal Storage
Timely, comprehensive, quality platform support
for optical devices
Optical Platform Client/Consumer
Preferred platform for developing, integrating,
and deploying storage devices
5
Overview USB Flash Drives and the Windows
Platform

• New customer scenarios are emerging
• Beyond portable data, towards portable
  experiences
• Microsoft is actively working with partners
• Defining new customer scenarios
• Enabling these scenarios with the platform
• Standardization efforts are gaining momentum
• Covering broad categories of the technology
• Can help enable innovation and quality

6
USB Flash Drive Market Growth
IDC, Preliminary forecast, 12-Apr-04 Gartner,
Semiconductor Database, 18-May-04 Web-Feet
Research, Flash Cards and Removable Storage
Fcast 2004-09, Mar-04
Source Web-Feet Research, March 2005
7
Larger Scope of Technology Personal Storage

• Devices defined by usage vs. technology, e.g.
• Organizing
• Listening to music
• Communicating
• Mobile experiences
• The platform and standards need to follow
• Common support across multiple devices
• Common support across multiple buses
• There is much opportunity for improvement in
  customer experiences

8
Industry Standardization Efforts Presentations

• USB Flash Drive Alliance (UFDA)
• U3
• IEEE P1667 WG

Note These presentations do not imply
endorsement or feature support by Microsoft.
These are efforts in progress of note in the
industry.
9
USB Flash Drive Alliance (UFDA)Unleashing the
Full Potential ofUSB Flash Drives Through
Standards

• Steffen Hellmold
• President
• Shellmold _at_ lexar.com
• USB Flash Drive Alliance

10
Section Outline

• The USB flash drive alliance overview
• Why a UFD device specification NOW
• The near term focus of the UFDA
• Mechanical Considerations for UFDs
• A Plug Form Factor Guideline
• Application Specific Interfaces for UFDs
• Mass Storage Class Lock An idea
• Environmental Considerations for UFDs

11
USB Flash Drive Alliance Overview

• Founded as non-profit organization end of 2003
• Initial focus to establish category name USB
  flash drive and educate consumer about UFD
• End of 2004 UFDA added focus on UFD standard
• UFDA targets to establish a UFD device spec
• UFDA is an open industry organization
• UFDA represents companies across the industry
• UFDA believes in open royalty-free industry
  standards as best suited to maximize market
  growth
• UFDA works to complement existing standards
  bodies, not to compete with them

12
USB Flash Drive Alliance - Members

• Sponsor Members
• Lexar
• PNY Technologies
• Samsung

• Associate Members
• Add On Technology
• Alcor Micro
• Corsair
• Crucial Technology
• Edge Tech Corp
• Genesys Logic
• Globalware Solutions
• Infineon Technologies
• International Microsystems Incorporated
• Kingston Technology
• Memory Experts International
• Microsoft
• SimpleTech
• Viking Interworks

13
Why a UFD Device Specification NOW

• For a category less than three years old, USB
  flash drives have enjoyed phenomenal growth
  despite the lack of a USB flash drive device
  specification
• Initial predominant application was simple,
  external portable storage but USB flash drives
  grown beyond, various proprietary solutions are
  available in the market
• Standards are required to enable the ubiquitous
  use of UFDs in new applications markets as
  multiple sourcing is desired and standards
  facilitate adoption
• A portable storage solution that can be used in
  various market segments such as computing,
  consumer and mobile is desirable to optimize
  consumer experience

14
The Near Term Focus of the UFDA

• Standardize as little as needed to create a
  common specification enabling multiple sourcing
  whereby the work from existing standards bodies
  should be leveraged
• Standardization Requests should first be pursued
  through USB-IF, T10, IEEE P1667 and JEDEC. If
  outside the scope of these committe then UFDA.
• Initial focus areas for standardization efforts
• Mechanical
• Application Specific Interfaces
• Environmental

Note The UFDA is not associated with any of the
above standards bodies nor is it endorsed by
these standards bodies.
15
Mechanical Considerations for UFDs

• USB flash drives come in many different
  industrial design with different material and
  colors
• Host devices are typically created with the USB
  cable and connector specification in mind
• Therefore it makes sense to leverage this
  specification to define a form factor guideline
  for UFDs to enable their use as a flash card
• USB-IF has approved a Plug Form Factor Guideline
  1.0 based on the USB Type A connector
• http//www.usb.org/developers/devclass_docs/CCWG__
  A__Plug_Form_Factor_Guideline__Revision_1.0_.pdf
  
• Further form factors need to be defined to offer
  suitable solutions for all applications

16
A Plug Form Factor Guideline

• Based on type A connector per USB V2.0 spec
• W 12mm, H 4.5mm, L 31.75mm
• Label recess and finger grip

Top View
Bottom View
17
Application Specific Interfaces for UFDs

• USB flash drives typically use MSC drivers
• This enables their use as simple storage devices
  on systems with modern operating systems without
  the use of proprietary drivers
• In order to use USB flash drives in conjunction
  with sophisticated applications standards for
  application specific interfaces is needed
• Security is a major focus and standards need to
  be established to secure
• The storage
• The channel
• The network

18
Mass Storage Class Lock an Idea
(A) Legacy compatible when password clear
(B) One familiar unlocked drive letter, no
unusable locked drive letters
(C) Windows Update triggered by drive
traveling w/ password
(D) No false reports of malfunctioning mass
storage.
19
Environmental Considerations for UFDs

• Consumers need to have means to determine if the
  environmental specification of the product they
  intend to buy is suitable for theirintended use
• USB flash drives are based on various silicon,
  assembly and material technologies. This has
  implications to their environmental behavior.
• Therefore there is a need to establish an
  environmental specification so users know that a
  USB flash drive has certain temperature, shock,
  vibration, drop, humidity and other ratings

20
The U3 OpportunityU3 The next generation
platform for USB Flash Drives

• Nathan Gold
• Sr. Director, U3 Developer Forumngold _at_ u3.com
• U3 LLC

21
Section Outline

• About U3
• The U3 Platform
• U3 Architecture and SDK
• Demo

22
About U3

• Founded December 2004
• Founders
• SanDisk Corporation (Sunnyvale, CA)
• M-Systems (Kfar Saba, Israel)
• Staff 25
• Headquarters in Redwood Shores, CA
• Key Milestones
• Company Launch January 2005 at CES
• U3 Global Developer Summit on June 7-8
• First U3 products to hit the market in mid-2005

23
Arrival of USB 3rd Generation

• 3G Smart Drives
• Mobilizes personal workspace
• Wide range of applications, data and preferences
• Multi-vendor compatibility
• Extends PC to a new user experience called USB
  computing
• More advanced device features

• 2G Single-Purpose Drives
• Proprietary, limited solutions
• Vendor-specific, no standards
• Only one application/drive
• Advanced device features

App

• 1G Dumb Drives
• Data files only
• Security problems

U3 envisions a world in which people carry their
personal workspace with them not just files,
but software applications, preferences and the
means to interact with them enabling a private,
protected and portable computing experience on
any computer.
24
U3 Platform Components
Provided by

• Applications
• LaunchPad Interface
• SDK

Microsoft
ISV
IHV
USB Interface

• Compliant HW
• Compliant Firmware

USB Flash Drive
25
U3 Architecture
26
What do you build?

• U3 Applications
• Applications travel with the U3 compliant device
• All configurations and data stored on the device.
• U3 Deployment Guide and SDK Fast track
  tomobilizing your applications!
• These applications are run from the U3 LaunchPad.
• U3-Aware Applications
• Classic Windows applications that know about the
  U3 device
• Leverage the power of the U3 device features
• Unique serial numbers, secure cookies, and
  lock/unlock device
• U3 SDK
• Device API is the way for both U3 Applications
  and U3 Aware Applications to leverage device
  features

27
SDK Components

• Building Applications
• U3 tools for preparing U3 Applications
• Tools to increase mobility of applications
  (registry help)
• Configuration
• Set device configuration (formatting,
  partitioning, sizing and securing partitions,
  setting security on partitions)
• Displays device information Firmware version,
  vendor strings, hardware serial number, U3 unique
  id, device parameters
• CD Manager
• Burn a CD image
• Autorun
• Write Protect
• Allows protecting or releasing write protection
  on device

28
Device Operations

• Basic Device Services
• Basic device information
• Device Capabilities
• Serial number
• Version
• Vendor/product strings
• Drive letters
• Capacity
• Basic device services
• Eject
• Insert / Remove events
• Configuration change events

• Extended Device Services
• Extended device services
• Cookies
• Protected Cookies
• Login/Logout to secure zone
• Change and reset password

29
DemoU3 LaunchPad
30
IEEE P1667 WGStandard Protocol for
Authentication in Host Attachments of Transient
Storage Devices

• Ariel Sobelman
• Chairman, IEEE P1667 WG
• Ariel.Sobelman _at_ m-systems.com
• IEEE P1667 WG

31
Root of Problem Today is No Root-of-Trust

• Corporate IT departments blocking USB ports
• External threats attacking systems
• Internal threats information theft
• Threat perception is at all-time high
• May threaten the continued growth of USB storage
  devices.
• IEEE P1667 targeting corporate security level
• Compliments other standards working on access
  control and trusted computing infrastructure
• P1667 targeting corporate level
• Critical for continued trust of the major
  corporate IT departments in the system and
  storage solutions used by their employees
• Goal Wide-spread adoption by major security IT
  vendors
• P1667 adopted by top security vendors
• Compatibility with and support for P1667 in
• Security and authentication products
• System products

32
Areas Covered by P1667

• Secure enterprise
• Authenticate the identity of the device and its
  ownership
• Only allow authenticated devices to mount
  authentication requires positive identification
  of the device
• Access control is supplied by the host device
  only needs a trusted ID
• Secure device
• Device will only mount according to
  accesscontrol rules
• Device requires positive identification of the
  host it is attaching to before allowing the host
  to access it

33
Areas Covered by P1667 (con't)

• Secure content
• Device and host may not trust each other in the
  context of some secure data or licensed software
• DRM system around data (for example) needs to
  authenticate the host, device, and a
  relationshipbetween them
• P1667 only focuses on the authentication of the
  components, not the access control mechanism

34
IEEE P1667 Area of Responsibility
AdditionalServices
Authentication

• Management Services
• Content Filtering
• DRM
• Authorization

Authentication
Data Storage
Transient Storage Device
Host PC
IEEE P1667
SecurityServices
Hardware
35
Summary and Call to Action
36
Summary and Call to Action

• New customer scenarios are emerging combining the
  Windows platform, USB flash drives, and other
  personal storage
• Industry standards efforts are working to enable
  innovation and product development
• Understand the support and efforts in place today
• Communicate your needs for enabling your product
  ideas
• Windows platform support
• Industry standards support

37
Community Resources

• Windows Hardware Driver Central (WHDC)
• www.microsoft.com/whdc/default.mspx
• Technical Communities
• www.microsoft.com/communities/products/default.msp
  x
• Non-Microsoft Community Sites
• www.microsoft.com/communities/related/default.mspx
  
• Microsoft Public Newsgroups
• www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups
• Technical Chats and Webcasts
• www.microsoft.com/communities/chats/default.mspx
• www.microsoft.com/webcasts
• Microsoft Blogs
• www.microsoft.com/communities/blogs

38
Additional Resources

• Email
• Microsoft inquiries hec5stor _at_ microsoft.com
• Web Resources
• UFDA http//www.usbflashdrive.org
• A Plug Form Factor Guidline 1.0
• http//www.usb.org/developers/devclass_docsapprov
  ed
• U3 http//www.u3.com
• IEEE P1667 http//standards.ieee.org/board/nes/pr
  ojects/1667.pdf