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Switching hub controller shares peripherals between two hosts

7th December 2006

ES Admin

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DT Electronics has announced availability of SMSC’s 4-Port USB2.0 switching hub controller, multiswitch hub USB2524. Considered an industry first, the USB2524 provides the ability to share attached USB peripheral devices between two USB hosts. The USB2524 does away with the disruption of swapping cumbersome cables or costly networking alternatives. For example, the USB2524 can share a direct-print photo printer between both a digital camera and a PC. The device acts as two independently controllable USB2.0 hubs within a single package and provides two upstream and four downstream ports.

Fully compliant with the USB2.0 specification, the USB2524 will attach to either or both upstream USB hosts as a full-speed hub or as a full-/high-speed hub. Downstream ports support low-, full- and high-speed operation. Any USB peripheral or USB hub attached to one of the downstream ports will be available to one or the other of the upstream host controllers. Peripherals can be switched, on-the-fly, between hosts. Each host can configure and control each port assigned to it, including full USB power management.

Other applications for the USB2524 include sharing a printer between two PCs and an MP3 player between a PC and a personal video recorder. With the rise of USB as the serial bus of choice for embedded applications, the device will also find application in devices such as KVM switches, set-top boxes and removable hard disk drives.

The USB2524 features a variety of configuration options including EEPROM or SMBus slave port. Multiple LED mode outputs are available to indicate USB mode, host ownership and port speed mode. The device is available in a 56-pin QFN green, lead-free package.