Cynthion - USB Protocol Analyzer

Cynthion - USB Protocol Analyzer

SKU: Cynthion
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Product description

Cynthion is an all-in-one tool for building, testing, monitoring, and experimenting with USB devices. Built around a unique FPGA-based architecture, Cynthion’s digital hardware can be fully customized to suit the application at hand. As a result, it can act as a no-compromise High-Speed USB protocol analyzer, a USB research multi-tool, or a USB development platform.

Out-of-the-box, Cynthion acts as a USB protocol analyzer capable of capturing and analyzing traffic between a host and any Low-, Full-, or High-Speed (“USB 2.0”) USB device. It works seamlessly with Packetry open-source analysis software.

Packetry is a fast, intuitive USB 2.0 protocol analysis application for use with Cynthion or for exploring previously captured USB traffic. Designed from the ground up to handle the challenges of USB analysis, Packetry enables live capture and visual representation of physical layer packet data for High Speed (480 Mbps), Full Speed (12 Mbps), and Low Speed (1.5 Mbps) USB.

More information is available on the website of Great Scott Gadgets and Crowd Supply.


Technical Specifications


  • A Lattice Semiconductor LFE5U-12F ECP5 FPGA supported by the yosys+nextpnr open-source FPGA flow

  • Three High-Speed USB interfaces, each connected to a USB3343 PHY capable of operating at up to 480 Mbps. 

    •  Two USB Type-C connectors for device-mode communication (left side)

    •  One USB Type-C connector for host-mode communication, device-mode communication, or USB analysis (right-side)

    •  One USB Type-A connector for host-mode communication or USB analysis (right-side, shared with Type-C connector)



  • A Microchip SAMD11 debug controller allows user configuration of the FPGA and provides a number of diagnostic interfaces: 

    • A complete, user-programmable JTAG controller capable of configuring the FPGA and communicating via JTAG with user designs

    • A built-in USB-to-serial communications bridge for FPGA debug I/O

    • A variety of simple, built-in debug mechanisms, including utilities that allow you to create simple, PC-accessible register interfaces



  • Three USB power switches allow you to control power to and from the right-side USB connectors, thereby facilitating controlled power cycling of USB-powered devices under analysis.

  •  64 Mbit (8 MiB) RAM for buffering USB traffic or for user applications

  • Two unpopulated User I/O SMA connector footprints intended for Trigger In / Trigger Out use or for multi-device clock/data synchronization

  • Two unpopulated Pmod I/O connectors presenting 16 high-speed FPGA user IOs that support user FPGA applications and allow logic-level data to be captured during USB analysis

  • 32 Mbit (4 MiB) SPI-connected flash for PC-less FPGA configuration

  • Six FPGA-connected user LEDs and five microcontroller-managed status LEDs
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