FTDI

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Scottish semiconductor device design company

title: "FTDI" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["semiconductor-companies-of-the-united-kingdom", "technology-companies-established-in-1992", "companies-based-in-glasgow"] description: "Scottish semiconductor device design company" topic_path: "geography/united-kingdom" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FTDI" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Scottish semiconductor device design company ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox company"]

FieldValue
nameFTDI
logoFile:Logo of FTDI.png
typePrivate
foundation13 March 1992
founderFred Dart
locationGlasgow, Scotland
industrySemiconductor industry
homepage
::

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Future Technology Devices International Limited, commonly known by its acronym FTDI, is a Scottish privately held fabless semiconductor device company, specialising in Universal Serial Bus (USB) technology.

It develops, manufactures, and supports devices and their related cables and software drivers for converting USB signals to and from various protocols, including RS-232/TTL serial (to provide support for legacy devices on modern computers lacking an accessible UART) and inter-chip communication bus protocols (e.g. SPI, I²C, JTAG, or GPIO) to interface with chips like microcontrollers, flash memory, and FPGAs.

The company also provides application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) design services, and consultancy services for product design, specifically in the realm of electronic devices.

History

FTDI was founded on 13 March 1992 by its current CEO, Fred Dart (whose initials happen to be "FTD"). The company is an indirect descendant of Computer Design Concepts Ltd, a former semiconductor technology startup also founded by Dart.

FTDI's initial products were chipsets for personal computer motherboards, the primary customer of which was IBM, which used them in its AMBRA and PS/1 personal computers. It later expanded its product line to include interface translators, such as the MM232R and the USB-COM232-PLUS1, along with other devices for converting between USB and other communication protocols.

The headquarters of FTDI is in Glasgow, Scotland. It has offices in Singapore, Taipei (Taiwan), and Portland, Oregon, and a subsidiary in China. The company's manufacturing is handled by subcontractors in the Asia-Pacific region.

In 2012, FTDI signed a global distribution agreement with Arrow Electronics, which was expanded in 2013. Also in 2012, they began a collaboration with Altium providing the board level IC components from FTDI for its Altium Designer software. In 2013 the distribution agreement with Arrow was expanded and FTDI also began a collaboration with Mikroelektronika.

FTDI appointed a new distributor in 2014 for the Chinese market, Shanghai Jing Xi Electronics Information Systems Company Ltd.

Through a technology partnership in 2014, FTDI and MCCI (USB software developer) released TrueTask USB, an embedded USB host stack for the FTDI FT900 product family.

FTDI created a separate company called Bridgetek in 2016 to focus on microcontroller units (MCUs) and Embedded Video Engine (EVE).

Driver controversy

On 29 September 2014, FTDI released an updated version of their USB-to-Serial driver for Windows on their website. Users who manually downloaded the new drivers reported problems. The behaviour was supported by a notice in the drivers' end user license agreement, which warned that use of the drivers with non-genuine FTDI products would "irretrievably damage" them. On 22 October 2014, an emergency patch was made to the FTDI drivers in the Linux kernel to recognise devices with the "0000" ID.

On 24 October 2014, in response to the criticism, FTDI withdrew the driver and admitted that the measure was intended to protect its intellectual property and encourage users to purchase genuine FTDI products. The company also stated that it was working to create an updated driver which would notify users of non-genuine FTDI products in a "non-invasive" manner.

In February 2016, it was reported that FTDI had published another driver on Windows Update with DRM components intended to block non-genuine products. This time, the driver will communicate with affected devices, but all transmitted and received data is replaced with the looped ASCII string "NON GENUINE DEVICE FOUND!", which could cause irregular interactions with devices.

Products

Examples of some FTDI products. File:FTDI USB SERIAL.jpg|FTDI US-232R: USB to RS-232 cable. Image:FTDI Cable.jpg|FTDI TTL-232RG: USB to UART cable. Image:FT232R USB UART IC (SSOP).jpg|FTDI FT232RL: USB to UART chip (in SSOP package). Image:Ftdi-FT232RL-HD.jpg|Internal die of FTDI FT232RL chip. File:FT232H (18710686901).png|Adafruit FT232H USB to UART board. (3rd party product)

References

References

  1. (5 July 2020). "FTDI Corporate Information".
  2. "FTDI Products".
  3. "Future Technology Devices International Limited".
  4. (2012-05-17). "FTDI signs global distribution deal with Arrow".
  5. (2012-08-02). "Embedded World: Altium, FTDI Chip collaborate on new board level components".
  6. (2013-05-07). "FTDI Chip expands with Arrow".
  7. (2013). "FTDI Chip expands with Arrow".
  8. (2013). "FTDI teams up with MikroElektronika".
  9. (2014). "FTDI appoints new distributor in China".
  10. (2014-08-26). "FTDI Chip adds embedded USB host stack for FT900 MCU chips".
  11. (2016-11-03). "FTDI forms separate company focussed on MCU & display-related products".
  12. "Virtual COM Port Drivers".
  13. (22 October 2014). "Windows Update drivers bricking USB serial chips beloved of hardware hackers". Ars Technica.
  14. (22 October 2014). "Watch That Windows Update: FTDI Drivers Are Killing Fake Chips".
  15. "IP Rights Aren't a License to Kill Devices (And No, Fine Print Doesn't Make It OK)". [[Public Knowledge]].
  16. "[PATCH] usb: serial: Add "bricked" FTDI device PID". linux-usb mailing list.
  17. "FTDI Post".
  18. "FTDI admits to bricking innocent users' chips in silent update". CBS Interactive.
  19. (February 2016). "FTDI Drivers Break Fake Chips, Again".
  20. "FTDI abuses Windows Update, pushing driver that breaks counterfeit chips".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

semiconductor-companies-of-the-united-kingdomtechnology-companies-established-in-1992companies-based-in-glasgow