Dual SATA Bridge Chip From Oxford Semiconductor Brings Fully Portable Data Storage

Oxford, England -- Supporting both USB2.0 and External SATA connections, the OXU921DS from Oxford Semiconductor enables the design of external storage products capable of providing complete portability of personal data between existing and future computing platforms.

A bridge chip to enable transparent data transfer between a USB2.0 port and up to two SATA disks, it offers RAID 0 and 1 capability as well as disk spanning. The chip's embedded USB Link and Phy allow for full and high-speed operation to help maximise data throughput.

For storage manufacturers wishing to add higher speed eSATA connectivity to their products, one of the bridge chip's SATA ports can also configured as an input port for future eSATA to SATA connections. Operating at 1.5Ghz, the integrated SATA core and Phy of the OXU921DS optimise the data rate to the external disk interface.

ARM7 processor based and including 8Kbytes of RAM and 12GPIOs, the bridge chip provides significant scope for highly differentiated product design. Field upgradeable firmware supplied with the chip includes the USB mass storage protocol, supported as standard by Windows and Apple Mac operating systems.

To help further reduce NRE costs, the OXU921DS shares a common software base with all other bridge chips in the '92X' product family and is made available with a complete development kit and evaluation board. In a 176 pin BGA package, this latest bridge chip is priced at 7.44 USD in 10K+ quantities.

SOURCE: Oxford Semiconductor