14 DAY TRIAL // Things definitely look to be heating up in the SuperSpeed USB 3.0 market and Fresco Logic seems to be sure they will get get a big piece of the pie real soon, the company just announcing it will ship 1 million USB 3.0 host controllers by year-end 2010.
Recently certified by the USB-IF forum, Fresco Logic's host controller is just the second such chip to get SuperSpeed USB certification following on the footsteps of NEC's already ubiquitous µPD720200.
But Fresco Logic is determined to challenge NEC's supremacy as the company has already delivered USB 3.0 host controllers to tier-one OEMs that have incorporated the technology into notebooks, motherboards and add-in cards.
Although Fresco Logic won't give us any brand names, they say that SuperSpeed USB products with Fresco Logic technology are available right now in retail stores around the world.
Based on the company's very own GoXtream xHCI Accelerator Engine, Plastic Logic says its USB 3.0 host controller can reach transfer speeds in excess of 370MB/s, making it the fastest USB 3.0 certified host controller available.
Furthermore, the company states that its controller is ready to provide 1080p high-definition video streaming, its driver also gaining Microsoft’s Windows Hardware Quality Labs (WHQL) certification in January 2010.
“As an early innovator and industry leader of SuperSpeed USB technology, we have focused on delivering to our customers the ‘sweet spot’ of performance and power, providing them with a competitive advantage for their products,” said Jing-Fan Zhang, president and CEO of Fresco Logic.
“Our solution has been used in the USB-IF’s PDKs since September 2009 to assist companies in developing USB 3.0 peripherals, and we look forward to enabling even more SuperSpeed USB products for consumers.”
This is indeed good news, as more competing solutions usually mean lower prices for manufacturers, further proliferating the USB 3.0 standard in the consumer space.