Advanced Micro Devices and Renesas Electronics have agreed to jointly promote the SuperSpeed USB standard. Under the agreement, AMD will install Renesas/NEC µPD720200 USB 3.0 controller onto reference designs of its mainboards, which will give a signal to motherboard makers that AMD recognizes the importance of the next-generation interface. The companies will also ensure maximum USB 3.0 performance on AMD platforms.

“We are pleased to share our USB 3.0 host controller and technologies with AMD to develop their USB 3.0 product portfolio by reducing time-to-market, lowering power consumption, and improving price-performance,” said Kazuyoshi Yamada, senior vice president, Renesas Electronics Corp.

In December 2009, Renesas Electronics (formerly NEC) released its USB Attached SCSI Protocol (UASP) driver, supporting the new industry-standard, highly efficient mass-storage protocol suitable for use on SuperSpeed USB to overcome the performance boundaries of the Bulk Only Transfer (BOT) protocol. The new UASP driver will be used with Renesas Electronics' USB 3.0 xHCI host controller (part number µPD720200), which entered the market in June 2009.

Adopting Renesas Electronics' USB 3.0 xHCI host controller to its reference design, AMD successfully implemented USB 3.0 data transfer speeds onto its mainboards. Renesas Electronics and AMD are also partnering to achieve interoperability of Renesas Electronics' UASP driver with AMD's motherboards to provide a standardized UASP driver into the market. AMD successfully enhanced the data transfer rate by around 20% compared to the conventional BOT., while minimizing design-cycle time, the companies said.

“By combining both companies' innovation and expertise, we were able to enable the USB 3.0 ecosystem for UAS support, further increasing the performance of these USB 3.0 solutions,” said Mike Wisor, senior director of system software development at AMD.

Having shipped over three million units of its µPD720200 host controller, as a dedicated promoter of USB 3.0 standard, Renesas Electronics is now targeting monthly production of two million units starting April 2010 and aims to continually contribute to advancement and standardization of USB.

Tags: AMD, NEC, Renesas, USB