NEC Electronics Ramps Up Production of USB 3.0 Host Controller

Contributes to Promotion of the USB 3.0 Standard with Shipment of Three Million Host Controllers

KAWASAKI (Japan), SANTA CLARA, Calif. (USA), DÜESSELDORF (Germany), NEC Electronics (TSE: 6723) today announced that it plans to double production of its USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) certified SuperSpeed USB (USB 3.0) host controller (part number µPD720200), the world’s first, and is expecting to reach monthly production of two million units starting April 2010.
The µPD720200 device is a host controller for PCs and other digital consumer devices and is based on the Intel xHCI specification, supporting SuperSpeed USB transfer speeds of up to 5 gigabits per second (Gbps) of data, which is up to 10 times faster than previous Hi-Speed USB (USB 2.0) transfer speeds. NEC Electronics’ host controller is the first commercially available SuperSpeed USB product certified by the USB-IF, and mass production began in September 2009. To meet the increasing market demands for USB 3.0-compatible PCs, NEC Electronics already has shipped three million units of its µPD720200 host controller. Thanks to USB-IF’s strong commitment and promotion for the adoption of SuperSpeed USB , this milestone was achieved just six months after the availability of this device, while the company’s USB 2.0 host controller took approximately one and a half years to reach 3 million shipments, by comparison. NEC Electronics expects industry adoption of its USB 3.0 host controller to accelerate, and therefore decided to boost its production volume sooner than planned to address the increasing demand.
As a member of the USB-IF since 1996, NEC Electronics has played a leading role both in defining USB standards and in developing USB technology. In 2000, NEC Electronics introduced the world’s first USB 2.0-compliant host controller chip (part number µPD720100), with enhancements to the host controllers including hub controllers, and has been a leading semiconductor manufacturer to offer complete USB-IF certified USB 2.0 solutions. As of February 2010, NEC Electronics has shipped a total of 180 million USB-related products including the xHCI host controller in support of SuperSpeed USB. In addition to the xHCI host controller, the company has been receiving orders for USB 3.0 system-on-a-chip (SOC) design solutions that feature the company’s USB 3.0 intellectual property (IP) core.

″The strong sales of NEC Electronics’ USB-IF certified host controller clearly indicates the extraordinary adoption of SuperSpeed USB into consumer products,″ said Jeff Ravencraft, president and chairman, USB-IF. ″Introduced just over a year ago, SuperSpeed USB has become the world’s most widely watched technology, dramatically enhancing the speed with which consumers can transfer their data by providing the fastest USB experience available.″

″We are very pleased to continue to contribute to the promotion of the USB standard and technology. Moreover, it is very exciting to push the standard and technology up to the next level, the 5 Gbps SuperSpeed USB era, with NEC Electronics’ host controller,″ said Osamu Matsushima, general manager, Industry and Network Division, NEC Electronics Corporation. As a core member of USB-IF, NEC Electronics intends to continually dedicate itself to achieve advancement and standardization of USB.″

More information about NEC Electronics’ USB 3.0 host controller can be found at http://www.necel.com/usb/en/index.html.

About NEC Electronics

NEC Electronics Corporation (TSE: 6723) specializes in semiconductor products encompassing advanced technology solutions for the high-end computing and broadband networking markets; system solutions for the mobile handset, PC peripheral, automotive and digital consumer markets; and multi-market solutions for a wide range of customer applications. NEC Electronics Corporation has subsidiaries worldwide including NEC Electronics America, Inc. and NEC Electronics (Europe) GmbH. More information about NEC Electronics worldwide can be found at www.necel.com.