14 DAY TRIAL // It looks like there is a new maker of USB 3.0 chips in the house, one that even has great ambitions as far as its particular segment of the IT market goes.
Etron wants to become one of the top two suppliers of USB 3.0 flash drive controllers before the year is over (2012).
The first time it promised such chips was at CES (Consumer Electronics Show).
Only now has the company actually begun shipping those things though.
There are two chips, with two and four channels, respectively.
They support 3xnm and 2xnm flash memory and transfer speeds of up to 230 MB/s (on the four-channel).
Alas, flash memory will have to get more affordable before that high mark gets even close to being common. After all, there can't be cheap flash devices that are both capacious and fast, not in today's market.