Pericom expands USB 3.0 signal conditioning family

USA: Pericom Semiconductor Corp., a leading supplier of high-speed connectivity, signal-conditioning and timing solutions, announced the expansion of its USB 3.0 5Gb ReDriver Signal Conditioning product family.

The new additions offer the industry’s smallest footprint at 2mmx2mm, and  lowest  power in both operating (158mW) and all important slumber mode (3.63mW), making them ideal for battery powered mobile devices, such as tablets, smart phones, and notebooks. AC powered platforms such as servers and networking switches also benefit since power and space savings are equally important.

Pericom’s USB 3.0 ReDriver family enables end customer platform designers to extend the PCB trace or cable length and preserve signal integrity.  The extra signal margin can help assure that the platform will properly recognize and connect to a peripheral USB 3.0 device at USB 3.0 speeds.

“Mobile device chipsets typically have lower signal strength, so our smaller, lower power ReDrivers are being adopted to handle the external cable and still meet USB3 standards compliance,” said Bill Weir, senior director for Pericom’s Connect Products Group. “Our product roadmap will soon offer even lower power and lower voltage options in the same pinout for seamless transition, and continue our performance tradition of full standards compliance.”

End customer platforms for Pericom’s USB 3.0 ReDriver products include tablets, smart phones, notebooks, desktop, docking stations, workstations, servers, storage, embedded, networking, consumer (camera, DVR, etc), HDD/SSD, and other platforms that are rapidly moving to the new and faster USB 3.0 serial protocol.

USB is by far the most widely used serial protocol in the world, offering transfer speeds up to 10 times faster than USB 2.0.  GII (Global Information, Inc - Nov, 2012) forecasts that global market for USB3 devices will grow more than 500 percent through 2016, with over 2.5 billion USB3 enabled products being shipped.