Raising money for a hackable, open hardware-based USB protocol analyzer

Cory Doctorow at 8:41 AM Friday, Nov 26, 2010

A stellar pair of reverse engineers, bushing and pytey from iPhone DevTeam/Team Twiizers, have launched a Kickstarter fundraiser to back OpenVizsla, a open/hackable hardware-based USB protocol analyzer. They've got my support -- this work will continue to enable free/open drivers for everything from iPods to 3G modems, and allow indie software developers to continue making tools that interact with our hardware:

USB has a standard, published interface that is properly described (at great length) but the actual protocols for connected devices are not common and are often proprietary to the individual vendors or manufacturers. USB succeeded at eliminating most strange cables, but requires custom drivers for many types of hardware.

Often, these USB protocols are intentionally obfuscated to make them confusing and complex in order to attempt to restrict support to the original manufacturer of the device. In this case the USB packets themselves hold the key to the information that is necessary to write independent third party drivers.

Protocol analysis and reverse engineering is needed to create such drivers and these tasks rely on the real-time capture of USB traffic. Software-based analyzers are available, but only useful in certain limited applications.

Hardware based protocol analyzers are expensive and are usually out of the reach of most independent developers, hobbyists and hackers. The most popular products cost $1400+ and, with few exceptions, use proprietary Windows-only client software, proprietary protocols, and proprietary data formats that are hard to export for use with other software.

OpenVizsla will be a completely open design of a device that can capture USB 1.1/2.0 (high-speed, full-speed and low-speed) traffic passively between a target USB device and the connected host (usually a PC, but potentially anything that has a USB host port -- think Xbox 360 and PS3). It will be controlled by any computer using open-source client software or potentially in standalone mode (where captured traffic is stored onto an on-board SD card).

"OpenVizsla" Open Source USB Protocol Analyzer

Roundup, Life Sciences, Biotech

Aveo Gets Money from OSI, Merck Buys SmartCells, Glaxo Cancels Resveratrol Drug Trial, & More Boston-Area Life Sciences News

Erin Kutz 12/3/10

This week we took an in-depth look at several New England area biotechs, and saw some interesting developments from bigger drugmakers.

—I checked in with Holden, MA-based Hygeia Therapeutics, a startup developing topically delivered synthetic hormone treatments, using technology licensed from Yale University. The biotech has gathered pre-clinical data on a synthetic estrogen product for the treatment of age-related skin thinning.

—Ryan profiled Selventa, a Cambridge, MA-based startup formerly named Genstruct that is developing software to help pair the right patients with the right experimental treatments—before expensive clinical research trials are done. The firm, which has kept pretty quiet about its technology since starting in 2002, is now making a push to publicize its research and technology.

—Cambridge-based Aileron Therapeutics inked a deal for exclusive rights to “click” chemistry technology from The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA.

—Antibody technology developer Adimab, of Lebanon, NH, brought in a $4 million Series E funding round. The startup, which was founded in 2007 and is working on yeast-based human antibody discovery technology, raised the financing at a pre-money valuation of $520 million, which is double the value of the company when it raised its last round in October 2009.

—Cambridge-based Aveo Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AVEO) said it will bring in $25 million in two equal payments from OSI Pharmaceuticals, which has exercised its option to Aveo’s technology for research in cancer and patient biomarker selection. Aveo’s platform allows researchers to engineer animal models with genetic mutations that are present in human forms of cancer.

—GlaxoSmithKline axed a mid-stage clinical trial of SRT501, a drug it picked up as part of its 2008 acquisition of Cambridge-based Sirtris Pharmaceuticals that is a formulation of the “red wine” chemical resveratrol. Glaxo chose to …Next Page »

Erin Kutz is an Assistant Editor for Xconomy. You can reach her by e-mail at ekutz@xconomy.com or by phone at (617) 252-0700.

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Roundup, Life Sciences, Biotech

Aveo Gets Money from OSI, Merck Buys SmartCells, Glaxo Cancels Resveratrol Drug Trial, & More Boston-Area Life Sciences News

Erin Kutz 12/3/10

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