NEC Electronics Corp. on Wednesday said that it so far has shipped three million USB 3.0 host controllers to various customers and that given such a high demand, the company will increase production of appropriate chips by two times.

″We are very pleased to continue to contribute to the promotion of the USB standard and technology. Moreover, it is very exciting to push the standard and technology up to the next level, the 5Gbps SuperSpeed USB era, with NEC Electronics' host controller,″ said Osamu Matsushima, general manager of industry and network division at NEC Electronics.

NEC said that it would boost production of certified SuperSpeed USB (USB 3.0) host controller (part number µPD720200) to monthly production of two million units starting April 2010, which will be a rather tangible increase and is likely to influence pricing of USB 3.0-enabled devices.

NEC Electronics' host controller is the first commercially available SuperSpeed USB product certified by the USB-IF, its mass production began in September 2009. To meet the increasing market demands for USB 3.0-compatible PCs, NEC Electronics already has shipped three million units of its µPD720200 host controller. This milestone was achieved just six months after the availability of this device, while the company's USB 2.0 host controller took approximately one and a half years to reach 3 million shipments, by comparison.

As of February 2010, NEC Electronics has shipped a total of 180 million USB-related products including the xHCI host controller in support of SuperSpeed USB. In addition to the xHCI host controller, the company has been receiving orders for USB 3.0 system-on-a-chip (SOC) design solutions that feature the company's USB 3.0 intellectual property (IP) core.

Tags: NEC, USB