It’s finally official, Windows 8 will support SuperSpeed USB 3.0.  Microsoft’s blog really lays out all the virtual and real hardware testing that Microsoft has to go through to make sure the drivers work, and work well. with billions of USB products.

Microsoft hasn’t announced a Windows 8 availability date, but we know from IDF Beijing that the PC Chipset makers will release USB 3.0 support in 2012.  So we can speculate that Windows 8 and these PC Chipsets will ship at the same time.  Links to the IDF Beijing reports that April Blog entry.

Interestingly, Microsoft uses a combination of a virtual approach and hardware testing.

The Virtual Approach looks similar to our Virtual Platforms.

The ASSP looks like a flash/thumb drive.  It has a USB 3.0 Device Chip in it.  It basically exercises many different USB transfer types varying parameters like packet sizes.  You can see the Microsoft USB Test Tool (MUTT) with it’s creator David Hargrove.  If I can find purchasing info, I’ll post it below.

David Hargrove and Microsoft USB Test Tool – Picture from Microsoft Blog Site

USB 3.0 Host Chip ASPs

I made an error in the graph and pricing in the last entry (yesterday).  My apologies.

In fact, the January time frame I reported that while Digitimes had some source saying prices would drop to $1.70-$1.80, in fact Host ASPs remained up around $2.35 per chip.

What Digitimes is saying is that prices will drop to $1.20 next year, but now Renesas/NEC have prices up at about $2.00 per chip while ASMedia is down at about $1.50 per chip.

“Renesas reportedly has notified its partners that it plans to lower prices for its 2-port controller chips to below US$1.20 from about US$2 currently. Comparable 2-port chips from ASMedia are currently available at US$1.50-1.70.” DigiTimes August, 19, 2011

I’ve corrected the graph here.

So I’ve lost any credibility I had in the community, so clearly you want to subscribe.

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DigiTimes reports that Renesas (formerly NEC) will drop it’s USB 3.0 Host chip prices to $1.20 in 2012

So if you followed my other blogs, you can see how the ASP of a USB 3.0 Host Chip has dropped.

Now I should point out, that these are ASPs across the board.  Some of these Host chips may be of differing quality.  Certainly the drivers are of differing quality as well.

The real reason that prices may drop in early 2012 is that the PC chip sets should arrive in early 2012.  So these discrete chips will be competing against high end chipsets that include USB 3.0 for “free”  In fact, the aftermarket will exist for a very long time for USB 3.0.

For Laptop PCs, I actually believe, with iPads and Tablets, even Notebook PCs will upgrade less frequently.  Hard drive capacities will continue to grow, and people will still want add-on cards for those laptops. 

For desktops, if you have the raw processing power, you still want to backup your 3 TB or drives onto an external USB 3.0 drive, and you need an add-on for that because you don’t buy a new machine that often for your desktop. It never moves, and it just serves up content, pictures, videos for your whole house.

In both cases, you buy an add-on card for probably 10-20 dollars next year, and buy the latest hard drives.

And the next laptop you buy, will probably have USB 3.0. At least that is why my Dad is waiting.

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Digitimes reports that Taiwanese motherboard makers have not seen a reduction in USB 3.0 Host Chip pricing. 

“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.