USB-SATA Bridge Chip Breaks USB 3.0 Barrier

Fujitsu’s 65-nm MB86C30A USB 3.0-SATA Bridge chip looks to bring the full performance of SATA storage to USB. USB 3.0 specs up USB 2.0’s 480-Mbit/s transfer rate to 5-Gbit/s transfer. This translates into 300 Mbytes/s versus USB 2.0’s 37 Mbytes/s. This is also on par with SATA-II’s 3 Gbits/s with a typical throughput on the order of 260 Mbytes/s. This matching performance is key for external storage units. The chip also incorporates a 32-bit RISC processor and AES hardware encryption support, which allows full-speed, full-disk encryption. It additionally supports the latest 2-Tbyte hard drives. Configuration options are available via SPI serial flash. GPIO allows direct manipulation of peripherals such as status LEDs. Further, the chip employs a spread-spectrum clock generator to reduce electromagnetic interference (EMI). The MB86C30A supports USB 2.0 using a separate controller since USB 2.0 and 3.0 typically use a connector but not connections. The USB 3.0 connections are only used by USB 3.0 versus USB 1.0 and 2.0, which share the same connections. Sample pricing for the MB86C30A is under $10. The MB86C30A comes in a 64-pin low-profile quad flat package (LQFP) and requires only one crystal and 550 mW (typical).

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