Renesas Electronics intros third-generation USB 3.0 host controllers

SANTA CLARA, USA: Renesas Electronics Corp., a premier provider of advanced semiconductor solutions, announced the availability of its two new SuperSpeed Universal Serial Bus (USB 3.0) xHCI host controllers (part numbers μPD720201 and μPD720202) for electronic devices such as PCs and digital TVs that feature faster, effective data transfer speeds and reduced power consumption in low-power mode.

The μPD720201 and μPD720202 controllers make it easier for system designers to build electronic devices combining high-speed data transfer, compact size and extended battery life. In addition, Renesas Electronics device drivers with a proven track record for Microsoft Windows®, and device drivers with Linux® support, are available for the μPD720201 and μPD720202 host controllers at no cost.

USB has achieved widespread adoption worldwide as an interface standard for connecting peripheral devices such as mouses and external hard disks to PCs and other digital electronic products. In recent years, the increasing data size of video content and the emergence of recording media with larger capacities have boosted demand for high-speed interfaces. As a result, USB 3.0, which boosts tenfold the earlier transfer speed of 480 megabits per second (Mbps), has appeared.

USB 3.0 has been widely adopted into an increasing number of PCs and peripheral devices such as external hard disks and USB flash memory drives. With the recent emergence of solid-state-drive (SSD) products offering faster read and write access than conventional hard disks and chipsets supporting the PCI Express Generation 2 high-speed internal bus for PCs, the groundwork is in place to enable the high-speed performance potential of USB 3.0 to be used to its fullest.

Against this background, there is strong market demand for host controller products offering faster, effective data transfer speeds with peripheral devices, reduced standby power consumption for better battery life in mobile devices such as tablet PCs and netbooks, and compact package size to enable the use of smaller printed wiring boards.

The host controllers add a new four-port product to the Renesas Electronics USB 3.0 product lineup and deliver even faster transfer speeds, better power efficiency and more compact size than the company’s previous versions of USB 3.0 host controllers.