14 DAY TRIAL // Though native chipset support for the SuperSpeed USB 3.0 standard has not yet become a reality, and won't until next year, motherboard and add-in board makers have been able to work around this issue by means of USB 3.0 controller chips and hubs. None of these solutions, however, have been able to provide more than two connectors. VIA aims to break this trend with its VL800 host controller.
The VL800 has been in development for a while and is a single-chip solution that enables a platform with PCI Express bandwidth to communicate with up to four USB 3.0-connected devices at the same time. The hub also supports battery Charging Specification 2.0 and is compliant with PCI Express Base specification 2.0. This feature set adds to the inherent compatibility with Universal Serial Bus 3.0 Specification Revision 1.0, Universal Serial Bus 2.0 Specification and eXtensible Host Controller Interface (xHCI) Specification Revision 0.96.
"VIA Labs is currently the only company in the world to offer a USB 3.0 host controller with support for four downstream ports," said David Hsu, Associate Vice President, VIA Labs. "The VL800 is an easy and cost effective way for motherboard manufacturers to bring additional USB 3.0 performance to their product lines, it means increased design opportunities for system integrators, and of course it means consumers can use more of their USB 3.0 devices at the same time."
The USB 3.0 connection can transfer data at speeds up to ten times faster than those achievable on the USB 2.0 interface. Still, since the standard is rather underrepresented, VIA was careful to make its hub backward compatible with USB 2.0 and USB 1.1 ports. There is no information on pricing, but since sample shipments have already started, it can be assumed that products based on the part will show up during the second half of the year.