PLX sampling industry’s highest-performance USB SuperSpeed 3.0 controllers

SUNNYVALE, USA: PLX Technology Inc., a leader in connectivity solutions for the data center and the home, announced the sampling of three new USB SuperSpeed 3.0-to-SATA controllers targeting the rapidly expanding consumer storage market.

The new PLX trio includes the OXU3102, OXU3101 and OXU3100, which provide the highest performance of direct attached storage (DAS) products using the emerging USB SuperSpeed standard. USB SuperSpeed-enabled external storage peripherals are expected to drive the considerable demand for this new high-speed connectivity among PCs and peripherals.

PLX’s new OXU3102 DAS controller, the flagship member of the family, targets the “prosumer” (professional- and power-consumer) market segment and combines USB SuperSpeed’s 5Gbps interface with dual high-speed SATA hard disk drive (HDD) ports. The midrange OXU3101 for portable computing and desktops offers the same features but bridges to a single SATA HDD.

Both the OXU3102 and OXU3101 feature integrated AES-256 encryption/decryption capabilities to ensure the highest level of data security. The entry-level OXU3100 provides the essential features for basic SuperSpeed-to-SATA designs.

Industry-leading performance is exemplified with the OXU3101, which is 8MB/s faster than the closest solution for single-disk systems. All three devices are strengthened with support for USB Attached SCSI (UAS), which helps deliver up to 35 percent faster performance.

The OXU3102 is capable of saturating the USB 3.0 link, thanks to hardware RAID 0 (or disk striping) where the data is split across the HDDs, and each HDD is accessed in turn to maximize throughput and reduce bottlenecks. Up to 27 integrated general-purpose I/O (GPIO) ports allow designers to easily customize their products and differentiate them with new features.

The silicon is brought to life with feature-rich firmware and best-in-class host applications. PLX’s robust firmware enables OEMs to launch products with features that consumers find truly compelling. This includes an intelligent power management feature, which reduces power consumption according to usage where the device core will turn off to match the PC’s sleep and hibernation states. This environmentally friendly asset meets the latest European power recommendations.

Another powerful feature for encryption systems is auto-install, where the password application can be stored on the HDD, thus freeing the consumer to use multiple PCs without having to find the CD that originally shipped with the product.

As with all PLX DAS solutions, the new controllers are supported by a comprehensive support package that includes evaluation boards, reference designs, software development kit (SDK) and, for the first time, PLX’s exclusive ISIS-branded toolkit.

The ISIS toolkit provides designers with easy access to device and firmware configurations, thus simplifying encryption settings, RAID configuration, power settings, and HDD monitoring – all creating a self-contained virtual help desk. In addition, the ISIS toolkit includes an end-user tool called Gateway for simple administration of passwords in secure systems -- as well as a single-click “in-field” firmware update utility.

“With more than 14 years of experience in USB development, PLX is dramatically expanding the options for designers needing USB support with the latest incarnation in SuperSpeed 3.0 performance,” said David Raun, PLX vice president of marketing and business development.

“The consumer storage market is quickly migrating to USB 3.0, since it is significantly faster, while both maintaining backward compatibility with USB 2.0 and minimizing additional costs. We are seeing very good traction for our USB 3.0 products not only in storage designs, but also across other consumer designs, as well as the enterprise business segments, as we expand our product portfolio.”

The OXU310x family is priced from $1.50 to $3.00 in large volumes. The products are sampling today and will be in full production in late Q3’10.