TI develops its first USB 3 four-port host controller
updated 09:00 pm EDT, Mon April 11, 2011
Also received certification for two-port version
Texas Instruments has won certification from the USB Implementer's Forum (USB-IF) for an all-USB 3 host controller that can be incorporated into expansion cards using PCIe, ExpressCard and other implementations suitable for notebooks, servers, HDTVs, gaming consoles and other devices. The controller uses full state-machine architecture to avoid any external storage needs (such as EEPROMs or flash memory), which should lower the cost of manufacture.
The company listed its four-port host controller as TUSB7340 and a two-port version as TUSB7320 at a price of $4.50 or $3.50 (respectively) in quantities of 1,000, and have included an xHCI PCIe card reference design to speed development of peripherals incorporating the modules. TI's design features receiver sensitivity more than twice what is required by the USB 3 specification, meaning it should work more consistently with longer cables (which can produce weak signalling) than competitors who stick to the specification.
Volume production will begin next month, but the modules are sampling now in a compact WQFN package.
