14 DAY TRIAL // PLX Technology has just introduced a pair of USB to PCI Express peripheral controllers that should ease the development of USB 3.0 devices that require a high performance computer interface connection.
From a functional standpoint, these chips allow USB 3.0 to behave in a similar way to Intel's recently launched Thunderbolt, formally Light Peak, technology as they route one or two PCI Express lanes to devices attached via the USB 3.0 interface.
In addition, PLX' new chips feature an intelligent design that allows them to be used both in the devices that need to be connected via USB 3.0 or inside a desktop or laptop system, by simply installing the chips in slightly different ways.
Specs wise, the two models are similar in functionality, but the USB 3380 supports only one PCI Express gen 2.0 lane while the USB 3382 supports two such PCIe lanes.
These can be merged together to provide the USB 3.0 peripheral connected via this chip with additional bandwidth, or can be used to support two independent PCI Express devices.
A PCI Express v2.0 lane is able to provide up to 500 MB/s (4 Gb/s) worth of bandwidth in each direction and in merged mode PLX says the USB 3382 is powerful enough to support external graphics cards.
Other high speed peripheral devices are also supported, but it should be noted that using USB 3.0 for connecting an external graphics card, or most other high performance peripherals, would almost certainly require additional power to be provided via a power adapter.
To ease the development of peripheral devices, PLX has integrated a 8051 microcontroller in its chips, that makes the ICs appear as standard devices to the OS , so no additional drivers are required.
The two PLX chips have yet to be ratified by USB-IF, but the company will start shipping samples of both solutions in Q2 with production kicking off in Q3. Prices are estimated to range between $7 and $8 US. (via SemiAccurate)