Integrated-circuit maker SMSC has come up with a low-cost IC that will, it says, allow four USB devices to be shared between two PCs or even between a games console and a PC. If it works as promised, the IC will save the hassle of plugging and unplugging USB devices into different PCs and the current alternative of buying expense networkable devices.
[Bob Crabtree adds - please see the update at the bottom of this page]
SMSC says that samples of the USB MultiSwitch Hub (part number USB2524) are available now with production quantities due in the third quarter of 2006. Cost in OEM quantities (ie large volumes) will be $3.75 per unit.
Among the possible uses that SMSC lists for USB hub equipped with its circuitry are:
A laptop sharing
all the devices connected to a desktop system
A game console sharing all the devices of a Macintosh or Windows PC
A set-top box and digital television sharing devices within an entertainment center
A game console sharing all the devices of a Macintosh or Windows PC
A set-top box and digital television sharing devices within an entertainment center
Going into detail, the company talks about someone bringing home a laptop PC and connecting to a wired or wireless USB hub fitted with a USB MultiSwitch IC. The laptop user can selectively share a printer, an MP3 player, a scanner and one other USB device connected to the hub without installing any controller software, without configuring anything and without rebooting. Users can, SMSC reckons, switch a peripheral from one host to the other on the fly and the peripheral will automatically detach from one and attach to the other.
The USB MultiSwitch - said to be fully compliant with the USB2.0 spec - has six ports, two upstream for connecting to PCs or other hosts and four downstream for connecting to USB devices. SMSC says it acts as two independently controllable USB2.0 hubs and has the ability to electronically reassign and reconfigure its downstream ports.
If there's a fly in the ointment it would appear to be SMSC's statement that, "Any configuration of the downstream ports is possible except simultaneous connection to both upstream ports". We interpret this as meaning that only one PC or host can access any of the attached USB device at a particular time. Pity. But not, we reckon, a killer blow to the whole idea.
Commenting on the new IC, SMSC's Steve Nelson, VP of marketing connectivity solutions, said,
As we looked at the way
USB was being implemented in consumer devices, it became clear that
users would face situations where constellations of peripherals, such
as printers, MP3 players, external storage devices, PVRs, and so on,
would be connected to a host device, but there was no simple way of
sharing them. The USB MultiSwitch gives OEMs a flexible and
cost-effective way to enhance their products' value by providing new
benefits to consumers.
Sound like a good idea? Let us hear your thoughts over in the HEXUS.community.
Update - April 18, 16:00.
SCAN Computers has alerted us in the above HEXUS.community thread to the fact that this product isn't quite the unique offering that SMSC claims. Scan already stocks a USB-sharing station, the Edimax EU-SD2P, priced at just £10.92 including VAT! As standard, though, this appears only to allow the sharing of a single USB device - but, seemingly, use of a USB hub might increase the number of shared devices. Keep an eye on the forum thread for further info.
For now, though, here is an edited extract from Scan's rather strangled description of the product:
This USB 2.0 sharing station allows two computers to share one or more (with USB HUB) USB 2.0 or 1.1 devices. Normally, most of computers have built-in 2 or 4 USB down stream ports and each computer can only connect to its own private USB devices. But USB devices are costly and the user need to swap the USB devices to share them between PCs.
