USB 3.0 Host Chip Pricing
Posted by Eric Huang on January 27th, 2011
“With a global market share of 95%, Renesas currently quotes US$2.20-2.50 for its USB 3.0 host ICs, much higher than US$1.70-1.80 quoted by ASMedia Technology, Etron Technology and VIA Labs of which their products were just adopted by Asustek Computer, ASRock, Elite Computer Systems and Gigabyte Technology for entry-level motherboards, the sources indicated.” Digitimes, January 26, 2011
So the price point as reported by Digitimes in April 2010 (and repeated by me) is on this trend:
Basically this is good news overall, even if Renesas keeps it’s price up, this price of a Host Controller has dropped 70%.
The chip is cheaper to integrate into motherboards.
More people integrate.
The market grows.
Renesas (and their competitors) make money with higher volumes making money on each chip.
(If they didn’t, they wouldn’t make chips anymore).
More consumers adopt USB 3.0.










I started working on USB in 1995, starting with the world’s first BIOS that supported USB Keyboards and Mice while at Award Software. After a departure into embedded systems software for real-time operating systems, I returned to USB IP cores and software at inSilicon, one of the leading suppliers of USB IP. In 2002, inSilicon was acquired by Synopsys and I’ve been here since. I also served as Chairman of the USB On-The-Go Working Group for the USB Implementers Forum from 2004-2006. 









