NEC Electronics America Inc. has demonstrated at CES 2009 what it says are the industry’s first prototype devices based on the USB 3.0 specification, which was announced by the USB Implementation Forum last November. The demo featured NEC’s USB 3.0 PHY test chip and was the first demonstration of receivers and transmitters based on USB 3.0 rev. 1.0.
The prototypes support data transfer speeds up to 10 times faster than USB 2.0 speeds and are backward compatible in consumer electronic devices based on the current USB specification. As it has in past development efforts involving USB 2.0 and Wireless USB, the company is evaluating a variety of standard USB 3.0 products, such as host and hub controllers, bridge chips, and device IP.
“NEC Electronics continues to deliver innovative solutions to help establish and promote the adoption of new USB specifications, and USB 3.0 represents a natural evolution of the USB standard, delivering greater transfer capabilities for today’s feature-rich consumer electronics products,” said Katsuhiko Nakazawa, general manager, digital consumer and connectivity strategic business unit, NEC Electronics America. “As a leading supplier of USB and PCI Express technologies, we offer all of the building blocks required to develop the next generation of USB technology, and we are also working to develop new SuperSpeed USB devices that will offer the required performance increases and interoperability with existing USB standards needed to facilitate a smooth transition to the new standard.”
NEC Electronics America Inc.
www.necelam.com