Renesas Electronics Corp. (former NEC Electronics) has announced the availability of its new SuperSpeed Universal Serial Bus (USB 3.0) host controller (part number µPD720200A), featuring 85% reduced power consumption compared to the company's existing host controller (part number µPD720200) when peripheral devices, such as mice, are not connected to the ports.

Supporting fast data transfer rates of up to 5Gb/s, the µPD720200A device achieves low power consumption of 50mW with no peripheral connection to the ports, reduced by 85% from the company's existing USB 3.0 host controller. According to Renesas, the new controller consumes up to 1W maximum when fully loaded. The new host controller also has the same footprint as the previous host controller, which makes it possible for system designers to accommodate their designs on the same board used for the previous device, the µPD720200. These advancements enable system designers to develop notebook PCs that boast longer battery life, yet maintain high data transfer rates.

The company also provides as a driver solution a USB Attached SCSI Protocol (UASP) driver designed specifically to enhance the performance of the company's USB 3.0 host controller when used in appropriate applications.

Renesas  has shipped an accumulated total around 9 million USB 3.0 controllers so far.

The company intends to market the new host controller chip aggressively and believes the new µPD720200A host controller will further promote the widespread use of USB 3.0 technology and also address today's rising demand for energy conservation.

Samples of Renesas Electronics' new µPD720200A host controller are currently available and are priced at $10 per unit, including the Windows device driver software. Mass production is expected to reach approximately 2 million units per month in October 2010 and is expected to be priced at $3 per unit.

Tags: Renesas, USB, NEC