Symwave creates USB 3.0 raidchip

One of the biggest advantages USB 3.0 brings around is the increased bandwidth of up to 5 Gbit/s, where USB 2.0 was limited to a data speed of 480 Mbit/s. In practice, this meant the USB 2.0 ports reached reading speeds of 30 MB/sec, not very favorable when copying large files. When you compare this speed to the SATA I/O protocol, which can easily handle speeds of up to 300 MB/sec, it's quite obvious why large hard disks with a USB2.0 connector never became really popular.

The coming of USB 3.0 however finishes off this problem and several companies have already announced chips to convert the SATA I/O protocol to the USB 3.0 protocol. By using these chips, external hard disks with a SATA-connector can be attached using a single USB 3.0 cable. Symwave has intrdocued a raidchip which, thanks to the raid-combination, is capable of reaching speeds up to 500 Mbyte/sec: more than enough for most RAID-0 configurations of hard disks and SSD's. Manufacturers can use the chip in external casings, allowing two hard disks to be hooked up using a single USB 3.0 cable as well.

Apart from this raid functionality, the chip is also capable of converting the SATA I/O protocol to the USB 3.0 protocol and automatically encrypt data with a 128-bit or 256-bit encryption. The chip will also support the IEEE 1667 protocol, a functionality which is integrated in Windows 7.

The USB raidchip will be launched for several manufacturers of USB 3.0 devices by the end of this year.

Like the Fujitsu chip shown above, Symwave's raidchip will also be capable of linking SATA devices to USB 3.0.

Tags: sata ssd usb usb3 windows7

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