SMSC Delivers USB 2.0 2-Port Hub

SMSC unveiled on Monday the USB2502, its USB 2.0 2-port hub controller.

The new USB2502 hub controller offers a 2-port device for those applications where the primary system requirement is to double the available number of USB2.0 ports. It offers an alternative to 4-port and 7-port hub controllers, which are more expensive, draw more power, occupy a much larger area and typically require external flash memory to disable unused ports. As a USB 2-port hub implementation, the USB2502 hub controller architecture uses only 36 pins, which makes it approximately a third of the size of competing controllers.

The USB2502 controller consumes less than 200 milliamps when operating at the full 480Mbits per second USB 2.0 high-speed mode, and can be powered by the current available from its upstream USB cable. The USB2502 controller supports both bus-powered and self-powered attached peripherals as downstream devices. For self-powered operation, the downstream device attached to the hub provides its own power. In bus-powered mode, all power is derived from the upstream facing port and no external power supply is required. Because of its industry leading USB high-speed transceivers on-chip, SMSC achievesthe necessary power constraints for bus-powered mobility.

Samples of the USB2502 hub controller are available now and product pricing for 10K unit volumes is $2.00 per unit (U.S. list price).