NEC announces first USB 3.0 host controller
NEC ELECTRONICS has announced what looks to be the world's first USB host controller supporting the new USB 3.0 standard.
The controller, or µPD720200 as it has been catchily dubbed, is purportedly designed for higher-performance transfer options on upcoming PCs, external hard drives and portable electronics. It's also backwardly compatible with USB 2.0, 1.1 and 1.0 for any slow pokes out there.
According to industry specs, the USB 3 standard should be able to support transfer speeds of up to five Gbps, some 10 times faster than the current USB 2.0 standard.
According to NEC, µPD720200 is also compatible with PCI Express and SATA, both capable of speeds of over three Gbps.
The best thing about USB 3, though, is that it finally does away with the profoundly irritating CPU polling older USB revs are known for. After all, USB was originally designed in an era where everything was supposed to run on a machine's CPU, invariably helping both Intel and AMD sell higher-grade processors than users actually needed, to stop the effect of clogging by oodles of interrupts. The problem is so acute, some users prefer PS/2 keyboards and mice to this day.
NEC's offering will be available from June, with the µPD720200 costing $15 a piece. The firm says each unit will be sold with free Windows driver software and that monthly production should reach 1,000,000 units by September of this year.
NEC has been a member of the USB Implementers Forum since 1996, and it's not the first time the company has stuck its, er, neck out to introduce a standards-based product ahead of its peers. Back in 2000, the firm launched the first USB 2.0-compliant host controller chip, with the μPD720100.
We're just happy all involved in the USB 3 fracas have finally decided to behave like adults, so the technology can finally progress. µ
See Also
Intel plays games with USB3.0
Intel tries to spin its way out of USB 3.0 accusations
USB3.0 xHCI spec released
Superspeed USB 3.0 arrives
Share this:
ShareBusiness Intelligence Software
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Enterprise Accounting Software
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
Enterprise Systems Management
First, if you use usb mouse, logitech is good one, it smooths out clog to point that cpu & cursor have delightful time together. Now Bung 10 Mouses together? Haha.oouuuie.
OK heres plot, by using sylv as model & teaching transgender surgery to sylv as my nursing ass't, take charlie, andrew & Nick, natural progenator of style, & create our own Sylv Farm. Nick can be Sylv 4, it'd be too hard on Mikes Heart, so then with Wackiest NewsCrew in Nation, theINQ Takes Over Word. or was that World? Signed: Drs. Frank 'N Steine. Ha,Ha,Ha,Ha,Ha,Haw.V LG Lifes Good, V LG Lifes Good, V LG.....
Didn't Dr Von Drashek announce this already in a comment to another article?
Be afraid, skynet is here and predicting the future!
"It can also apparently transfer 25GB of video content to a Blu-ray Disc at the stunning speed of 480Mbps."
So - the exact speed of USB 2?
Just what I thought. There is a difference between Mb and MB. (Look in the dictionary).
"It can also apparently transfer 25GB of video content to a Blu-ray Disc at the stunning speed of 480Mbps."
Apparently the speed at which video is transferred is dependent on the size of the file(s). So, how fast will it be if I have 24GB of video?
?
is bluray so much slower? Shouldn't EVERYTHING be able to hit up to 5Gbps if they are using the USB 3.0 specs?
that's all it took to make me look and realize i was reading some von drashek drivel.
It takes me less than a second before I realize that and skip to the bottom to confirm. Heck, I do this with all long comments now because sometimes drashek can write comments which seem normal at the beginning but the density of nonsense keeps increasing as you progress and you keep trying to figure out what the guy is saying and you don't even realize that you killed many neurons before you reach the end of the comment.
Hahaha...so true, so true.