USB 3.0 IS SLOWLY gaining ground and we’re seeing more and more devices being announced. VIA has just announced what it claims to be the first USB 3.0 hub controller and we have no reason to doubt it. Whether it’s needed is another matter altogether, but as always with new technology, there’s the chicken and egg effect and if no one brings out the chips for the bits that people are going to want, then no one’s going to buy into the technology.
The VL810 SuperSpeed Hub Controller, as the new chip is called, supports data transfer speeds of 5Gb/s. It offers up to four downstream USB ports and a hub based on the new chip can of course be powered. The VL810 chipset is also backwards compatible with all previous generations of USB technology, albeit at much slower data transfer speeds.
VIA claims to have improved the power management in the VL810 compared to older USB 2.0 hub controllers as it allows attached devices to enter lower power states when the devices aren’t being used. The chip itself is based on “advanced 80nm CMOS technology” which apparently makes it more power efficient in comparison to other USB hub controllers.
Now we just need some sensible devices to plug in to a USB 3.0 hub, but surely we’ll see a host of must have USB 3.0 devices being announced at CES, right?S|A
Lars-Göran Nilsson
Latest posts by Lars-Göran Nilsson (see all)
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