With Renesas suspending operations at several plants in the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Taiwan-based controller IC suppliers are speeding up the process of obtaining USB-IF certification for USB 3.0 host ICs with an aim to grab business opportunities.
ASMedia Technology, Etron Technology and VIA Labs are among the few Taiwan-based companies which are capable of developing USB 3.0 host controllers. However, none of them is able to claim a share of the pie which has long been dominated by Japan's Renesas, due to hurdles in having their products USB-IF certified.
ASMedia, Etron and VIA all have their host chips in the certification process, according to industry sources. They may stand a better chance of receiving orders from notebook and motherboard vendors, which are likely to be affected by Renesas' plant shutdown, the sources indicated.
Digitimes Research analyst Nobunaga Chai holds a different point of view. Chai said that disrupted production at Renesas will encourage the company to step up outsourcing to its foundry partners in order to satisfy all customer requirements.
Even Fresco Logic cannot compete with Renesas because the former company only provides USB-IF certified single-port host controllers, Chai pointed out. Renesas currently is the only company with USB-IF certified dual-port host products. Chai believes that notebook vendors want their products to present their brand awareness, thus using uncertified or less functional chips is definitely not an option for them.
Renesas has already used outside foundries on all of its 28nm semiconductor products, Chai indicated. It should be flexible for the company to extend its existing collaboration with foundries to bigger geometry segments, Chai said, if the foundries have spare capacity for it.