From Taiwan’s Etron: PCIe Gen2 to 4-Port USB 3.0 Host Controller IC

Etron Technology, Inc. launched at 2012 International CES:

• a four-port USB 3.0 Host Controller IC EJ198;
• a optimized cost-performance four-port USB 3.0 Host Controller IC EJ188, and
• a top performance dual-channel USB 3.0 Flash Drive Controller IC eV268.

These products are made with Etron’s self-developed USB 3.0 hardware and software technologies, and provide customers with a solution of using both Etron’s host and device ICs to enjoy data transfer experiences. Etron has further strengthened its position of supplying various USB 3.0 controller chips for fast growing USB 3.0 application markets.

Two-Lane PCIe Gen2 to Four-port USB 3.0 SoC Chip
Etron’s EJ198 USB 3.0 Host Controller IC conforms to PCIe Gen2 and USB 3.0 standards to support an I/O serial bus interface with a high transfer rate. This IC achieves system compatibility, low power consumption and performance. With two Lanes of the PCIe Gen2 inputs, the EJ198’s transfer rate of 5Gbps by each Lane can be doubled to output 10Gb per second to the USB 3.0 ports under a full duplex transmission, which has achieved a total of USB 3.0 performance up to 10Gbps.

One-Lane PCIe Gen2 to Four-port USB 3.0 SoC Chip
Etron also launches a high performance EJ188 USB 3.0 Host Controller IC for cost effectiveness. The product is also a PCIe Gen2 to USB 3.0 host controller, with only one Lane PCIe Gen2 in comparison to EJ198, but its transfer rate can also reach up to 5Gbps signaling rate, as defined in the USB 3.0 standard. The EJ188 has been adopted by Etron’s customers of USB 3.0 system manufacturers. In terms of hardware specifications, both EJ198 and EJ188 have four USB 3.0 ports and reserve backward compatibility with USB 2.0 and both are housed in 88-pin QFN packages with an individual external size of 10 by 10 mm2.

Dual-channel Flash Drive Controller SoC Chip
The company has also begun to introduce new USB 3.0 device products. The high-performance eV268 USB 3.0 Flash Drive Controller IC that was showed up at CES has a dual-channel flash memory interface. The eV268 chip has 60 bit ECC function, which supports ECC capability on all SLC/MLC/TLC NAND Flash memories made of 3x nm, 2x nm, and 1x nm advanced CMOS technologies from different flash memory manufacturers.

This eV268 product line has two products. The first one is labeled as eV268H, which features supporting 8CE (Channel Enable) and has achieved optimal values between fast data transfer rate and cost effectiveness.

The second product is labeled as eV268K, which shows high performance with using various synchronous or toggle-mode MLC flash memories. The eV268K expands its operation up to 16CE and presents 230 megabytes per second. The products have been adopted by some of Etron’s customers in manufacturing performance flash drives. The eV268 passed the USB-IF’s certification and compliance program.