USB Hub Reaches 49 Ports But With One Big Flaw
A UK based company [Cambrionix Limited] has mapped out a single PCB board to house 49 USB ports. Using the typical cascading style of USB typology, the main 7 port hub is then wired to another set of 7 hubs with seven ports…giving you 49 total.
The device is originally designed for testing USB devices in bulk, which is fine, but I see a fundamental flaw in all this. If one Hub chip goes south, the entire board [or portion of it] goes bad as well.
Typically a cascade style is fine because if one hub goes bad you simply replace that one hub, but in this case it’s not so easy. With an entire PCB board, you need solder rework – that takes time and expense. It’s a great concept, but I don’t think it’s very practical. Here at GetUSB we’ve seen plenty of hubs run into issues and fail.
I think it’s a great design and looks impressive, but practical and dependable for only a niche market.As a final note, the device is USB2.0 spec’d but with USB SuperSpeed or 3.0 just months away, it might be the wrong product for someone needing some higher performance.
Reports indication it’s available for about $550 USD.
Source: CrunchGear.
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