Renesas announces a USB 3.0 to SATA3 bridge SoC with UASP support

SEMICONDUCTOR COMPANY Renesas Electronics Corporation has announced its system-on-chip (SoC) for bridging USB 3.0 and SATA3 that supports the USB Attached SCSI Protocol (UASP), which it claims is an industry first.

The SoC, called µPD720230, allows data transfer between a USB 3.0 host system and a SATA device. The USB 3.0 technology promises speeds of up to 5Gbits/s, 10 times faster than USB 2.0. The support of the SATA Revision 3.0 specification allows speeds of up to 6Gbits/s.

The additional support of UASP will further bump up data transfer speeds to over 370MB/s in UASP mode, according to an ATTO Disk Benchmark.

The SoC also boasts reduced power consumption, compatibility with AMD's USB 3.0 motherboards, and support for the BOT protocol used by USB 2.0.

Renesas is offering a licence for its UASP driver for other companies making USB 3.0 to SATA 3 bridge devices, so we will likely see the technology in use by other vendors.

The SATA and UASP support might help get USB 3.0 into more computers and devices, as it is still struggling for take-up, despite the obvious speed increases it offers. The high cost and lack of supported motherboards and peripherals, not to mention rival ports like Thunderbolt, have so far resulted in most people sticking with USB 2.0, but that is likely to change as more companies push out cheaper and more advanced chips.

Despite the slow uptake of USB 3.0, with USB 2.0 remaining the standard, Renesas said it has shipped 10 million USB 3.0 host controllers since May of last year and expects to ship six million units per month going forward.

Samples of the µPD720230 SoC can be obtained now, at a price of $3.50 (£2.15) per unit in quantity, with mass production of 500,000 units a month expected to begin in October. µ