Intel Panther Point to offer four USB 3.0 ports in early 2012

Posted on Tuesday, January 25 2011 @ 22:24 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck

Looks like Panther Point will be Intel's first chipset to offer USB 3.0 support. This chip will be part of the Ivy Bridge-based platform, which is expected to arrive just under a year from now. Panther Point will offer four USB 3.0 ports as well as ten USB 2.0 ports.

Nothing in the PC platform really becomes an industry standard before Intel embraces it. Same is the case with USB 3.0, which, over an year after its entry into the industry, has seen limited market adoption and motherboard integration, driven mostly by 2-port PCI-E controllers. Internal presentation slides sourced by Heise show that the Panther Point chipset, which drives Intel's Ivy Bridge processors, embeds a 4-port XHCI compatible USB 3.0 SuperSpeed controller. The controller sits aside two EHCI USB 2.0 controllers, and shares 4 ports over a USB hub. So, out of the 14 USB ports from the chipset, 4 will be SuperSpeed capable.

Source: TPU

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Thomas De Maesschalck

Thomas has been messing with computer since early childhood and firmly believes the Internet is the best thing since sliced bread. Enjoys playing with new tech, is fascinated by science, and passionate about financial markets. When not behind a computer, he can be found with running shoes on or lifting heavy weights in the weight room.

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Re: Intel Panther Point to offer four USB 3.0 ports in early 2012
by Anonymous on Wednesday, January 26 2011 @ 16:10 CET

This should have been included in Sandy Bridge. It's a travesty that it couldn't even be implemented as an add on chip in Sandy Bridge. They had more than a year to get up to speed.

Shameful

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