|
 |
connectivityZONE Products for the week of June 1, 2009
NEC Electronics Says…
World’s First USB 3.0 Host Controller
NEC Electronics has introduced the world's first Universal Serial Bus (USB) host controller (part number µPD720200) for the new SuperSpeed USB 3.0 standard. NEC Electronics expects rapid adoption of the device and standard as the need to transfer larger and larger amounts of information between PCs to external hard-drives, portable electronic devices, and flash-based thumb drives continues to grow rapidly.
The µPD720200 device is a host controller for PCs and other digital devices, and is based on the new version of the Super Speed USB standard, supporting the world's fastest USB transfer speeds of up to 5 gigabits per second (Gbits/s) of data, which is 10 times faster than previous USB 2.0 transfer speeds. The new NEC Electronics device, as well as the standard, is fully backward compatible with versions USB 2.0, 1.1 and 1.0 of the USB standard.
With its high-speed transfer capability, the µPD720200 host controller makes it possible to expand the boundaries of digital appliances such as PCs, digital televisions and DVD recorders. The new Super-Speed USB 3.0 chip from NEC Electronics requires only 70 seconds to transfer 25 GB (gigabytes) of video content on a Blu-ray Disc, compared to 14 minutes to transfer the same content when using the high-speed USB 2.0 with 480 Mbps (megabits per second) transfer capability. This enormous increase in transfer speed will enable system designers to transfer large-volume data quickly and without stress and develop a new generation of high-performance consumer electronic products.
USB is the next-generation interface standard used in a wide range of electronic devices including PCs and PC peripherals. Originally designed as an interface for relatively low-speed computer peripherals, USB made it possible to connect keyboards, mice and other devices with the same USB standard cables. Later, version 2.0 of the standard defined a high-speed transfer mode that made USB a practical and popular interface for devices such as digital televisions, digital cameras, and DVD recorders. USB version 3.0 builds on this success by offering a ten-fold increase in speed, for stress-free transfers of large volumes of data. The high data-transfer-rate also offers compatibility with recent high-performance computer interfaces such as PCI Express and SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment), which are capable of data transfer at speeds in excess of 3 Gbits/s.
As a member of the USB Implementers Forum since 1996, NEC Electronics has played a leading role both in defining the USB standards and in developing USB technology. In 2000, the company launched the μPD720100 device, the world's first USB 2.0-compliant host controller chip. NEC Electronics also has developed hub controllers and an extensive lineup of other USB devices, all of which are certified to display the USB logo. As a result, the company has won the trust of the marketplace and shipped 161 million USB devices as of March 2009.
NEC Electronics expects the market for USB 3.0 products to begin a rapid expansion in 2010 and intends to market its new μPD720200 USB 3.0 host controller aggressively, and to offer a range of related products by incorporating USB 3.0 communications as an IP (intellectual property) core function in various application specific ICs.
EN-Genius Says…
As the first integrated USB 3.0 host controller/PHY to hit the market, NEC’s μPD720200 is a welcome development. While the 480 Mbit/s (250 - 300 Mbit/s useful) transfer rate available from the USB 2.0 spec is fast enough for most of today’s applications, USB 3.0’s 5 Gbit/s (around 3 Gbit/s useful capacity) will become a necessity as the size of data files and the storage systems they reside on continues to grow. Its speed and ability to work in adapter card, Express Card, or mother board-based applications will further fuel the trend towards using USB as the default connection for low-cost attached storage systems and other high-capacity computer peripherals.
The μPD720200 includes an xHCI controller block that drives its USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 PHY elements. Each PHY can drive two ports without additional address logic or buffering. The controller’s PCIe Gen2 host connection supports standard PCIe and Express Card applications and, per the Gen2 spec, can fall back to Gen1 operation when the faster interface is not available. NEC declined to disclose the amount of on-chip buffer memory it equipped the controller with, and would only say that what it had was adequate. Power consumption data was not available at the time of writing but is expected to be released shortly after the controller is fully characterized – probably some time in late June 2009.
This device is intended for a host-side connection and is not suitable for device-side (end-point) applications such as cameras or printers. NEC says that they do not have USB 3.0-capable end point device products available at the moment but plan to introduce them in the future to complement their current line of line of USB 2.0 devices. NEC says that they are already working with third-party companies to help develop ASICs which include USB 3.0 end point capability that includes their USB 3.0-capable PHY IP. When asked about whether it will offer follow-on USB 3.0 products with USB On-the-Go (OTG) capabilities NEC says that it has no plans to do so. The have not supported the protocol extension in previous product lines and feel that the relatively low demand for OTG-capable devices does not justify the extra development and tooling costs.
NEC has done several things to help ease the μPD720200 into cost-sensitive high-volume applications such as adapter cards, and laptop motherboards. The controller’s pins have been laid out to help simplify PCB designs and allow most boards to be produced using four layers. NEC has complete reference designs for both PCIe adapter card and Express Card formats that they will supply to customers at no charge. They also offer a hardware evaluation board that will help designers get familiar with the chip and the USB 3.0 protocol. No pricing for the board was available at the time of this writing.
By stepping out ahead of the market, NEC has helped accelerate USB 3.0’s roll-out and almost assured itself to be a major player unless they are dramatically undercut by a latecomer. The bulk of the early applications for the controller will most likely be in PCIe adapter cards and Express Card-based plug-ins that upgrade existing systems, but I’d expect to see a growing number of motherboards with native USB 3.0 capability emerging by the end of the year. NEC even speculates that USB 3.0’s tremendous bandwidth may be sufficient to eliminate the need for a dedicated storage interface (such as eSATA) on the motherboard in space-constrained apps and cost-conscious products.
Samples of NEC Electronics' µPD720200 host controller are scheduled to be available in June 2009 at $15 each, along with free Windows device driver software. Monthly production is expected to reach approximately 1,000,000 units in September 2009.
Product Page
|
|
|
|
|
