USB controller design houses including ASMedia Technology, JMicron Technology and VIA Labs are all eyeing the growing USB 3.0 and SATA 3.0 controller solution market in 2010. The players expect global shipments of USB 3.0 host controller chips alone to top 20 million units this year.
USB 3.0 is up to 10 times faster than the previous version, and is expect to see growing adoption across PC, consumer and mobile applications over the next several years, according to ASMedia. The company identifies its capability in PHY design as well as experience of working with system makers as the key to compete for more design wins.
ASMedia's shipments of USB 3.0 controller ICs to one motherboard customer are expected to exceed two million units a month during the second half of 2010, according to market sources. The designer is a subsidiary of Asustek Computer.
JMicron, led by MediaTek's chairman Tsai Ming-Kai, has commented that USB 3.0 controllers will enjoy some initial success in the HDD market. The 5GHz interface allows for a sustained transfer rate of 100MB/s, three times faster than current USB 2.0 devices.
JMicron was quoted in previous reports saying its overall controller IC shipments are expected to surpass 100 million units in 2010, up from around 70 million shipped last year. Controller chips for USB 3.0 storage devices will be the company's key growth driver for this year.
But concerns have been raised among system makers about USB 2.0 chip inventory once the slower chips are replaced by USB 3.0 chips. The latter allows a data-transfer rate of 50Gbps, whereas the former transfers data at 480Mbps.
In other news, the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) earlier this month announced 50 products that have passed SuperSpeed USB compliance and certification testing. Certified products include motherboards, notebooks, external storage devices, storage controllers, PCI Express and ExpressCard add-in cards, HDDs and device-enabling silicon.