Apr 12, 2011 14:11 GMT  ·  By

The USB Implementer Forum has just officially announced that AMD's upcoming A75 and A70M FCH chipsets for Llano APUs have gained USB 3.0 certification, which makes AMD the first company to offer a chipset level implementation of SuperSpeed USB.

The official press release comes almost three weeks after the chipsets have been spotted in the organization's USB 3.0 certification database.

Both of these FCH controllers can support up to four USB 3.0 ports and the A75 FCH (also known as Hudson-D3) is destined to be used in desktop systems, while the A70M FCH (also known as Hudson-M3) is targeting notebooks and other mobile devices.

Outside of USB 3.0 support, the Hudson-M3 and Hudson-D3 chipsets get six 6Gbps SATA ports, no less than ten USB 2.0 ports, RAID 0 and 1 support, four PCI Express Gen 2 lanes and a Gigabit Ethernet port.

In addition, the Hudson-D3 can pack up to three regular PCI slots and also features RAID 10 support.

The first notebooks and desktops built using these chipsets are expected to arrive on the market by the end of the second quarter, as AMD has already started shipping Llano APUs to its customers.

“The ramp of the SuperSpeed USB ecosystem has been unprecedented, and the first certified SuperSpeed USB chipsets from AMD are a momentous step in the industry,” said Jeff Ravencraft, USB-IF President & COO.

“SuperSpeed USB integration into the chipsets is a strong incentive for manufacturers to bring an even broader range of SuperSpeed USB solutions to the market.”

The future may indeed be bright for USB 3.0 as, apart from AMD, Intel will also introduce native support for the technology in its upcoming 7-series Panther Point PCHs.

“Chipset integration is essential in order to make the latest version of USB dominant in the marketplace, and the first SuperSpeed USB chipsets will greatly impact adoption,” believes Brian O’Rourke, principal analyst at In-Stat.