THERE ARE ALREADY a few USB 3.0 Flash drives on sale, but it looks like we might be getting some more affordable solutions once VLI’s VL750 controller hits the market as in typical VIA fashion, this new controller should be more affordable than what’s currently available. That is, of course, pending USB-IF certification, but hopefully this shouldn’t be too much of a problem for VIA to gain.
VLI claims that the VL750 will offer “blisteringly fast data transfer speeds of 100MB/s or more, depending on configuration” which of course is somewhat dependant on the type of Flash memory used in the drive. The VL750 features a quad channel design which is meant to improve data throughput compared to single or dual channel designs by offering more bandwidth and improved parallelization.
The VL750 also supports the new UASP protocol which should further enhance the performance, but it’s also backwards compatible with the bulk-only transport class. There’s of course backwards support for USB 2.0 as well where VLI claims it will offer data transfer speeds of up to 35MB/s, a fair bit higher than your average USB 2.0 Flash drive. The VL750 can be paired with any 2x or 3xnm “class” NAND Flash memory and it also sports an ECC engine to help prevent write errors and wear-leveling algorithms to help prevent slow-down over time.
The word is mum as to what partners VLI is working with, but the controller is sampling to partners as of right now. With a bit of luck we should be able to get our hands on a reference sample shortly for some early performance testing of the VL750 controller compared to other current products in the market.S|A
Lars-Göran Nilsson
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