Date: 25th May 2011

Renesas ramping up USB 3.0 Host Controllers production to 6M units per month

Renesas Electronics Corporation has announced that the cumulative total shipment of the company's SuperSpeed Universal Serial Bus (USB 3.0) host controllers has reached 30 million units worldwide as of May 19, 2011. This achievement comes a year and a half after starting mass production of the world's first USB host controller (µPD720200) in September 2009, making Renesas as the number one manufacturer of USB 3.0 host controllers. The company also announced that to further address increasing orders from customers, it plans to double production of USB 3.0 host controllers to a monthly production of six million units starting this June.

In April 2000, the company (then NEC Electronics) launched the µPD720100 device, USB 2.0-compliant host controller chip.

In May 2009, Renesas Electronics (then NEC Electronics) introduced the USB 3.0 xHCI host controller and, earn the "Certified SuperSpeed USB (USB 3.0)" certification from the USB-IF, and also started mass production of the µPD720200 host controller. In the following year, the company released its second USB 3.0 xHCI host controller (µPD720200A) and passed the compliance and certification testing in only two month. Renesas says these host controllers have become the de facto USB 3.0 host controller standard realizing the best interoperability between PCs and PC peripherals that support USB 3.0.

Following these devices, two new host controllers joined the Renesas USB 3.0 product lineup in March 2011 to deliver even faster transfer speeds, better power efficiency, and more compact size than the company's previous versions of USB 3.0 host controllers.

"The fact that our USB 3.0 host controllers surpassed the 30 million cumulative shipment mark in just one-and-a-half years serves as a clear demonstration that Renesas Electronics is the leader in the USB 3.0 market," said Yukihiko Matsuda, Associate General Manager, Industry & Network Business Division, Renesas Electronics Corporation. "To address the increasing adoption and orders from both new and existing customers in a timely manner, we decided to ramp up our production, and in the meantime, our product lineups will continue to evolve, expanding their possibilities by adding new features to further respond to customer requirements."