SYSTEMS

Fujitsu Semiconductor America has expanded its lineup of USB 3.0-SATA bridge controllers, introducing the new MB86E50 series for external USB 3.0 RAID storage devices.

The Fujitsu MB86E50 is specifically designed for external USB 3.0 dual-port RAID and non-RAID configurations. It supports RAID 0 (striping) and RAID 1 (mirroring) as well as JBOD ("just a bunch of disks") and Dual LUN configurations. An available integrated high-speed encryption hardware engine makes the controller an ideal design choice for demanding RAID storage applications using external hard disks or solid state drives.

In addition to RAID, the MB86E50 features transfer speeds up to 5Gbps, hot plugging of devices, and support for the USB attached SCSI (UAS) and Bulk-only Transport (BOT) protocols. The controller incorporates a high-performance 32-bit RISC MPU and an embedded SSCG to optimize SuperSpeed performance while reducing EMI. The MB86E50 includes full legacy support for high-speed USB (480Mbps) and full-speed USB (12Mbps) devices, and supports SATA Gen2i (3Gbps) and Gen1i (1.5Gbps), ATA, and ATAPI drives.

The MB86E50 is fabricated using the Fujitsu 65nm CMOS technology, offering low-power consumption and expandability. The bridge controller supports GPIOs including pulse width modulation, provides native command queuing (NCQ) functionality, and includes a serial peripheral interface (SPI) for serial Flash ROM and multiple SPI devices. The MB86E50 features a Pb-free (RoHS) design, customizable product and version identifiers, and a compact 68-pin QFN (0.4mm pitch, 8mm x 8mm) package for greater flexibility. Only one external crystal (25MHz) is required.

"With the MB86E50, Fujitsu enables drive and system manufacturers to offer RAID-enabled storage based on the state-of-the-art USB 3.0 standard," said Yoshi Masuda, senior manager of marketing, Fujitsu Semiconductor America. "The USB 3.0-SATA bridge controller combines the advantages of USB 3.0 – including higher transfer rates, plug-and-play interoperability, and hot-swapping – with the greater reliability and performance potential of RAID configurations. Available with a hardware-based high-speed encryption engine, the MB86E50 USB 3.0-SATA bridge controller offers a truly robust, secure and flexible external storage solution."